Degrees and the Doctor
by I-Confuse-Everyone
Summary: Sequel to A Levels and Aliens. The TARDIS trio have been called to the University of Mars to go undercover as a lecturer, a student and a janitor. Their task is to protect the heir to the Piripi kingdom but dark forces are at work against them... COMPLETE
1. Part one

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Hey, I'm back with the sequel to 'A-Levels and Aliens'. Thanks for all the reviews for that; at the last count there were something along the lines of 211. I am honoured! This part is for all the people who pestered me to update lol! Anyway. I really hope you enjoy this part and this story._**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

Rose Tyler stood patiently, leaning against a cold, stone wall on a planet billions of miles away from her native Earth. Jack Harkness crouched next to her, his body tense and alert as the pair waited for the Doctor to return. He had been missing for over ten minutes while he had gone to sort out a problem in a nearby tavern. The only reason that the ever faithful Rose and Jack weren't by his side was because the locals didn't exactly welcome females. When she had discovered this, Rose had been outraged and was ready to march into the tavern and slap them all silly. The Doctor, with quite a lot of effort, had managed to persuade her otherwise and Jack had volunteered to stay with her whilst the Doctor went to deal with the trouble. Which was where they were now.

The sound of hurried footsteps caused Rose to look up and she smiled as her lover came into view. He smiled back before stopping and facing his two companions.

"Did you manage to talk them round?" asked Jack,

"Yeah," the Doctor replied, "It's up to them what they do now."

Rose nodded, reaching out for one of his hands and linking their fingers gently. "Can we go back to the TARDIS now?"

"Sure," the Doctor agreed, "We…"

Whatever he had been about to say was cut off when a loud shout filled the air.

"FEMALE!"

The TARDIS trio glanced at one another before glaring at the alien who had raised the alarm. He was short and squat with a light purple fur coat and enormous green eyes and a single horn rising out of his forehead. The expression on his face instantly moved the time travellers into action.

Jack grabbed hold of Rose's other hand before the two men began dragging her away down the deserted street towards the dusty cart path, at the end of which, they had left their trusty TARDIS. Rose stumbled along as best as she could, wincing on every other step. She had painfully twisted her left ankle a few days earlier and although she was recovering well, it was really hindering her running speed. The Doctor knew this and after glancing at her and the rapidly closing in aliens behind them in concern, he made his decision. He stopped suddenly and pulled Rose towards him before lifting her up and throwing her over his shoulder so she was balanced there. He then began running again, with a giant grin on his face as he listened to her shrieks as she fought to keep her balance from the uneven rocking that his movement was making.

"You alright up there?" Jack shouted,

"No!" Rose grumbled, from where her head kept coming into contact with the Doctor's shoulder blades. She gripped his brown overcoat with both hands and forced her head up to see what was going on behind them. Then she immediately wished she hadn't. The original lone alien had been joined by at least nine others and they were all furiously chasing after them, moving extraordinarily fast for their body shape.

"Erm, Doctor?" she yelled, "You might wanna run a bit faster!"

"Don't worry, Rose," he called back, reassuringly patting the nearest part of her body that he could reach- which happened to be her bottom, "We're almost there."

"Yeah," Rose said, her eyes widening, "I just hope that we're _really _close because they seem to have some sort of guns…"

"What?" Jack spun around quickly before letting out a low cry of dismay, "Doctor, they've got high tech stunners!"

The Doctor cursed under his breath and immediately they seemed to be moving faster. Rose held on tightly, not daring to move a muscle in fear of falling off.

Suddenly, they came to an abrupt stop. Rose craned her neck to see what was happening and her heart leapt as she realised that they had finally reached their home. The Doctor pushed open the door roughly and they tumbled in, forcing the door closed behind them. Rose slid off him, crumbling to the floor as the two men dashed over to the console, hurriedly plotting in the co-ordinates to take them away. She took a deep breath, rubbing her dodgy ankle and frowning.

"Are you OK?" asked a familiar voice.

She looked up and smiled tiredly at the Doctor, who squatted down next to her. "I'm sorry I slowed us down again today. I really wish I hadn't twisted my stupid ankle!"

"Come on, let's go wrap it again and hopefully it'll be better before long," he replied, sympathetically, helping her stand up and hobble over to the Captain's Chair. "Seriously though, Rose, don't worry about it," he continued, sitting down on a stool and pulling her foot gently onto his lap, "How about we take a break now and go somewhere to relax and you can recover." The Doctor picked up a roll of bandages and began to carefully wrap it tightly around her ankle.

Rose watched him working while thinking it over. "Could we go back to my Earth for a few days?" she requested, "It's been months since I last saw Mum and I miss her. I could go visit Kirsty, Lauren and Matt as well,"

"Sounds good to me," the Doctor said, "How about I head back for the Christmas after we left? Then your friends will be in London instead of dotted all round the country,"

"You think of everything," Rose grinned, "Just so long as there isn't a Sycorax invasion this year!"

"There won't be," the Doctor almost growled, "Thanks to Harriet Jones. Thank God you elected that new bloke."

Rose bit her lip, sorry that she had bought the subject up. She knew that the Doctor still hadn't forgiven the ex-Prime Minister.

He saw her face and smiled gently, coming over to sit next to her and taking her into his arms. "How about we go tomorrow after we've slept. I don't know about you but I'm knackered!"

Rose nodded, leaning her head on his shoulder and covering a yawn. "Take me to bed then."

The Doctor grinned and kissed her forehead gently before scooping her up in his arms and making for their bedroom.

* * *

The next morning, Rose was sitting at the kitchen table, sleepily eating her cornflakes that were rapidly going mushy.

"Morning, honey," Jack said, taking the seat across the table, "Did you sleep well?"

Rose nodded, finally pushing away her bowl, "Did you?"

"Fantastically," he replied, "We going back to your London today?"

"Yup," grinned Rose, "I can't wait to see everyone again. The Doctor said we'll go in a couple of hours and he's taking us back for Christmas!"

"Great," said Jack, his eyes gleaming, "I can stalk Matt with mistletoe again!"

His sister laughed and hit him playfully. "Leave him alone. I wonder if he's found himself a girlfriend yet,"

"Who?" the Doctor asked, entering the room quickly and dropping a kiss on Rose's lips before sitting next to her,

"Matt," Rose answered, swivelling around to face him, "What's wrong?"

The Doctor smiled at just how fast she'd sussed him. He took her hand and rummaged around in his jacket pocket before pulling out the psychic paper. "Rose, do you remember just after I regenerated, I got a message on the psychic paper from the Face of Boe?"

Rose nodded. "So we went to New Earth and New New York. Why?"

"Well, I've had another one." He passed the paper over to her and she opened it, reading the message that instantly scrawled across it.

"Please come to the University of Mars in the year 4085. Your help is urgently needed," Rose read out, before looking at him, "What's it mean?"

"Exactly what it says," the Doctor answered, "We've got to go to 4085 and see what's happening,"

"Are we going now?" asked Jack,

"Yes I think so. They did say 'urgently'"

"What about going to visit my Mum?" said Rose, a little quietly,

"We'll go there straight afterwards, I promise," her lover replied,

"Oh OK," she mumbled.

The Doctor tilted her chin up so she was staring straight into his eyes. "If you want to go there first, we can," he said gently, "It's entirely up to you."

Rose considered it for a moment. "Alright but as long as I can visit her as soon as we're done at… where was it we were meant to go again?"

"The University of Mars," said the Doctor, with a grin,

"The University of…Mars?"

"Yep! I've never been there myself but it's supposed to be amazing! Aliens of all species go there to study and live together- even humans! It's incredible!"

Jack and Rose had to grin at the Doctor's obvious enthusiasm as he bounded up from the table and turned to face them.

"Come on, then!" he cried, "Let's get going. The University of Mars awaits!"

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	2. Part two

**Degrees and the Doctor**

_**Thanks for all the reviews. They made me smile. I'll update this as often as possible but it might stretch this weekly updates as I'm kept busy. I won't abandon it though, no way. Hope you enjoy part two.**_

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

The TARDIS landed with barely a shudder, making Rose look up in surprise. "What's wrong?" she immediately wanted to know,

"Rose Tyler, you wound me!" the Doctor said, placing his hand over one of his hearts, "Just because the TARDIS lands smoothly for a change doesn't mean something's wrong!"

Rose raised her eyebrows and grinned, "But we _never_ land smoothly!" she replied, "The TARDIS is infamous for it!"

"Don't hurt her feelings!" the Doctor gasped, as the lights seemed to dim,

"Sorry," Rose quickly apologised, patting the console, "So, are we here?"

"We're always here," the Doctor replied, with a smirk.

Rose rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. Are we at the University of Mars?" She watched in excitement as the Doctor looked at the console screen before nodding. "I believe so."

"Fantastic!" Rose beamed, before running to the door, eager to see what it looked like,

"Rose, no!" the Doctor and Jack shouted together,

"It's a vacuum- there's no air out there," the Doctor then went on to explain.

Rose frowned. "How do people breathe then?" she asked, "Do we have to go around wearing a helmet with an oxygen supply?"

"No," her lover said, "We're not actually in the university yet. We're still on the surface of Mars."

Rose's frown deepened for a few seconds before her mouth opened in realisation. "Life on Mars- they live _inside _the planet, don't they?" she said, "Not on the surface like humans do. That's why scientists back on Earth have never discovered any life. The probes they sent up only searched the surface!"

"Got it in one," the Doctor said, proudly, "Humans only discovered this in 3308 and they've only started visiting Mars in the last five hundred years or so…"

"Cool," Rose nodded before turning to Jack, "Did you come here?" she questioned, "It's around in the fifty first century, right?"

"Right," Jack agreed, "I didn't come here as I went straight into Time Agent training plus you need top qualifications to even stand a chance of getting in. One of my friends did though. He loved it,"

"Oh," his female friend said before another thought occurred to her, "How are we supposed to get into the university then?"

"Easily," replied the Doctor pressing a button, "Get ready,"

"Welcome to the University of Mars' visitor's entrance," came a mechanical voice, echoing inside the cavernous control room, "Please state your name and your business,"

"I'm the Doctor," he announced importantly, "I received a message telling me to come. My companions are Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness."

There was a pause before the mechanical voice spoke again. "You have been verified. You are now entering into the university lobby where an official will be waiting to assist you. Please have a pleasant day,"

"Thank you!" called the Doctor, grinning at Rose as the TARDIS began to shudder, "We're descending," he explained, "Then we can find out what's going on."

* * *

It wasn't long before they stopped and there came a polite knocking at the door. The Doctor went to open it, closely followed by Jack and Rose. Outside stood a man who looked human. He was of medium height, slightly on the plump side, held himself regally and had thin reddish hair covering his head and a handlebar moustache.

"The Doctor, Miss. Tyler and Mr. Harkness, I presume," he said, in an upper class voice,

"That's us!" replied the Doctor enthusiastically, eyeing the man's hair. Rose could almost see his jealousy.

"I am Professor Philip Hilton," the man continued, "I am the Principal here at the University of Mars and it is my great honour and pleasure to welcome you here,"

"Thanks," said the Doctor, "So Philip… it is OK for me to call you that, right?"

Professor Hilton nodded. "Of course, Doctor,"

"Great! So, was it you who sent me the message?"

Philip seemed to take a nervous look around before beckoning them out. "Please come to my office. We won't be overheard there."

The Doctor took an intrigued look at his companions before following him, pausing only to lock the TARDIS securely behind them.

* * *

A few minutes later, Philip showed them into his office. It was a nice room; rectangular with a huge window at one end. Rose immediately went to look out and gasped in delight. The view wasn't that spectacular but what she could see looked amazing. There was a small city, made up of many buildings and roads, all lit up by the light of the sun. Peering upwards, Rose saw to her astonishment that she could see the sun and feel its warmth on her skin.

"It's sort of like a glass roof, except it's not glass," said a quiet voice in her ear. She turned to look at the Doctor, who put his arm loosely around her waist. "You can't see it on the surface but its there. It kind of acts just like the Earth's O-Zone layer so there's oxygen down here,"

"It's amazing" Rose breathed, "You'd never know you were inside the planet,"

"We are rather proud of it, yes," spoke up Philip, gaining their attention again, "Please, won't you sit down?" He gestured to three comfortable looking armchairs that sat in front of an enormous wooden desk, behind which the Principal sat.

The three time travellers took their seats, with the Doctor in the middle. He looked expectantly at Philip.

"Well," Philip coughed, "Thank you for coming so promptly. It was me who sent the message. You see, I have a situation arising this semester and I needed your help…"

"Go on," requested the Doctor, a small frown appearing on his face,

"One of the new undergraduate students is in the centre of an abduction plot. She is the heir to the Labeaut family and there have been rumours of a plot to abduct her and hold her to ransom, forcing Lord and Lady Labeaut to abdicate from the throne of Piripi. Naturally, everyone is extremely worried but they don't want Lavia- that is the young lady's name- to stop with her education. She has no idea of the plot, however,"

"Right…" said the Doctor, slowly, the frown on his face now even more pronounced, "So; what do you want _us_ to do?"

"You will be her unofficial bodyguards if you choose to help us," replied Philip, "I don't mean guarding her all the time but just being around and keeping an eye on her, so to speak,"

"Why can't you use proper bodyguards?" asked Jack. Rose nodded at his question; the same thing had been going through her mind.

"It just isn't possible," Philip explained, with a shrug, "It would be much easier to use you three,"

"And that means what?" asked the Doctor.

Philip looked at them steadily. "If you choose to accept, then the three of you will be going undercover so to speak. There is a role for each of you to play. You, Doctor, will become our Physics lecturer; Mr. Harkness, you will be a janitor and Miss Tyler, you will have the most important role. You will be a new undergraduate- the same as Miss Lavia- and actually be a student in her halls and on her course." He looked at their faces, waiting for their verdict.

"How long will we be here?" the Doctor asked,

"I honestly do not know. It shouldn't be too long as there are teams working on the case as we speak and as soon as we discover the identity of the culprits, you are most welcome to leave. Of course, you don't need to even do this if you'd rather not but your help would be gratefully received."

The Doctor glanced at Jack and Roe, who both nodded back. They had made their decision.

"Alright, we'll do it," the Doctor stated.

Philip breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am indebted to you all." He smiled and straightened some papers on his desk. "Now, if you would like to follow me, I will give you a tour of the campus and explain a bit more…"

* * *

Rose looked around her new room and then back to the Doctor who was sat on her bed.

"Why can't we sleep on the TARDIS?" she asked,

"She's going into storage," he said, "and won't be easily accessible. Plus its university policy that all students and staff live in halls."

Rose sighed. "I can't believe I'm becoming a student again! I thought I'd done that at college,"

"It was your own choice," he gently reminded her, while holding open his arms. She collapsed onto his lap gratefully and leaned her head against his chest.

"Mmm, just listening to your hearts beat; it's so comforting," she murmured,

"Well, they're all yours," the Doctor replied, squeezing her slightly,

"I'm gonna miss you," Rose said, quietly, "I know I'll be able to see you everyday an' all but it won't be the same. It's gonna be weird us sleeping in separate rooms after nearly two years of sleeping in the same bed,"

"I know," the Doctor said, "I'm going to miss you too but it won't be for long. You coped when me and Jack went away for a few weeks,"

"Yeah," Rose sighed, "I love you so much, you know that?"

"Course I do. I love you too. I love you lots and lots and lots and lots…" grinned the Doctor, with a cheeky smile, before finding her lips for a long and passionate kiss. "Now, I better go and sort out my room as the other students will be arriving soon. You remember where it is?"

Rose nodded. Philip had shown them on their tour.

"And don't forget you can call me on the university network if you need anything, whenever. Remember the number?"

Rose grinned. "007. Like James Bond."

The Doctor pulled a pose and put on a deeper voice. "The name's Doctor. _The _Doctor."

His angel laughed and affectionately shoved him with her shoulder. "Go on, get outta here!" She stood up so he could do the same.

"Alright. Stay safe, my angel and keep alert," he said, leaning in for one last kiss and then he was gone.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	3. Part three

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for all the reviews. I think it's very likely going to be weekly updates from now on but I'll write as fast as I can. Hope you enjoy!_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

After the Doctor's departure, Rose spent the first hour or so making her new room feel more like home. She had brought a lot of her things up from the TARDIS and spread them around. Looking around, Rose felt she had done a good job. The room was a typical university bedroom, very similar to the ones she had seen in her friend's prospectuses back on Earth. The only differences really were that there was a screen on one of the walls that bulletined news across it and visual and audio messages could be sent directly to her. There were a few other hi-tech gadgets scattered around that Rose enjoyed playing with.

Suddenly a noise attracted her attention. She darted to the door and peered out to see what was going on. The first of her new hall mates appeared to be moving in two doors down. Feeling rather apprehensive, Rose moved quietly down the corridor in order to introduce herself.

"Hey, I'm Rose Tyler," she smiled, after knocking politely at the door, "I'm in the next but one room down."

The new student looked up from where she'd been putting clothes into her drawers and smiled. "Hi, I'm Jenico but I generally go by Jen."

Rose nodded and took a closer look at her new friend. She had a human body shape but her skin was entirely blue. Then, she realised where she had seen Jen's species before; they had been the attendants on Platform One all that time ago.

"Are you from Cres… Crespa…"

"Crespallion," said Jen, "Yeah, its part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, in Complex fifty-six. It took me quite a while to get here but I'm so glad I did!"

The girls laughed together.

"Are you from Earth then?" Jen asked, "You look human,"

"Yeah, I am," Rose replied, "Didn't have to come as far as you."

They laughed again until it was interrupted by the sound of another arrival. Grinning at one another, Rose and Jen ran to the door and looked out. There seemed to be a small crowd outside the room in-between both of theirs, made up of aliens with what appeared to be a cream coloured light coating of fur covering their bodies, beneath their clothes. They didn't have any hair and their heads seemed to be slightly larger than normal.

"Can I get through please?" requested a loud voice,

"Kall, can't you see we're kind of busy here!" said a slightly posh voice,

"I too would like to be busy if you would just let me _through_!" returned the original voice, in annoyance, before the crowd parted and a tall male alien of the same species as those in the crowd strode through.

"Afternoon," he said, catching sight of the staring girls, "Take it one of you is my new neighbour?"

"Yeah, that's me," replied Jen with a smile and introduced herself, "Good to meet you,"

"Likewise. The name's Kall in case you didn't hear the dulcet tones of Lavia down there," he said,

"Lavia?" asked Rose, suddenly,

"Yeah," Kall said, turning his intense blue gaze on her, "We come from the same planet- Piripi. We were in the same college and lovely Lavia likes to make herself known,"

"You don't sound like you like her very much," said Rose,

"Ask me that again in a weeks time and see if _you_ like her," Kall smirked, "What's your name, anyway?"

"Rose," she answered, wondering if Kall knew about what she was doing here, "I'm in the room the other side of Lavia,"

"Ah right. So that's the four of us on this corridor," Kall said, "Should be an entertaining semester. Right, well, I suppose I better go and get moved in. See you later, ladies!"

"Bye Kall!" chorused Rose and Jen, watching as he fiddled with his key card and then disappeared into his room.

Jen sighed dreamily. "He is _so_ cute!"

"Yeah," Rose agreed, "OK, I'm going to finish unpacking. Maybe we can go get a coffee or something in a bit?"

"I'd like that," Jen replied, "See you later then!"

* * *

Rose was lying on her bed, daydreaming, before a knock at the door broke her out of her stupor. She leant up on her elbows and beamed when she saw Jack standing in her doorway.

"Hey," she greeted,

"Hi Rose," he replied, entering the room and closing the door behind him so they could have some privacy, "I've got your papers,"

"Thanks," she replied, taking them and beginning to rifle through them, seeing her first day programme, general instructions and an example of the catered menu, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Jack said, coming and sitting down next to her, "I like your room,"

"Yeah," Rose shrugged, "Not as nice as my one on the TARDIS but it'll do. How's yours?"

"Not as nice as this!" her friend said, with a trace of bitterness in his tone, "I don't suppose us lowly janitors deserve as much luxury as you students."

Rose put her arms around him. "I wish you could've been a student too, Jack, but you know what the Doctor and Philip said,"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack grumbled, with a smile, "Being a janitor means I can search buildings without arousing suspicion, I know."

Rose smiled at him and kissed his cheek. "It's gonna be weird for all of us but it won't be long before we're outta here and going on crazy adventures again."

Jack looked at her in surprise. "I think the Doctor's rubbing off on you. You're becoming wise,"

"I'll take that as a compliment!" Rose laughed, before suddenly freezing, "Jack, am I seeing things or does this say I'm enrolled on the Physics course?"

He read the sheet that Rose was brandishing and grinned, "That's what it says, honey,"

"But I don't have the faintest clue about Physics!" Rose said,

"Look on the bright side; who's the Physic's lecturer?"

Rose thought for a second before a mischievous smile spread across her face. "Oh, this is gonna be so great!"

* * *

"Hey Rose, you coming for dinner?"

Rose looked up from her book to see Jen and Kall standing outside her door.

"Sure," she agreed, bounding up and over to them, "Oh, hi."

She smiled at Lavia who didn't return her smile. She refused to let that faze her however. "You're Lavia, right? I'm Rose,"

"Hello," Lavia finally muttered,

"Right, we going to find some food then?" asked Kall, cheerfully, "I'm starving!"

The quartet moved down the corridor and found the escalator going down. They jumped off at the bottom and looked around.

"OK, which way to the canteen?" asked Jen, to the world at large, "Did anyone bring their map?"

A chorus of no's greeted her ears and she sighed. "Alright, let's try… this way!"

They quickly walked down the deserted corridor, constantly looking for a sign but finding none.

"I think we're lost," said Kall, at last,

"Typical," Lavia sniffed,

"No, wait, there's somebody!" Jen cried.

Rose looked and her heart leapt as she realised it was the Doctor.

"Excuse me, sir," she said, brazenly when they reached him, "Can you tell us where the canteen is?"

Their eyes met and he grinned. "Sure, I'm on my way there now. Come on." He began walking in the opposite direction to which they had come. "So undergrads then? I'm Doctor John Smith by the way…" He caught Rose rolling her eyes from where she was walking next to him. "What are your names?"

"Kall,"

"Jenico, but I prefer to be called Jen,"

"Rose,"

"Lavia," said the third girl,

"Nice to meet you all," the Doctor said, glancing at Rose and raising an eyebrow slightly. She smiled at him and nodded quickly. "What courses are you taking?"

"Physics," grinned Rose, her tongue poking between her teeth. The Doctor winked and grinned,

"We all are," contributed Jen. They had discovered this earlier in the day and apart from Lavia, they had fallen about laughing. It was very rare that students studying the same course live together. It was normally mixed up. "You're the Physics lecturer, aren't you?"

"Yup," he answered as they turned a corner and entered the noisy canteen, "I look forward to seeing you in my classes then."

The four students nodded and bid him goodbye as he walked off, briefly brushing Rose's hand with his own as he passed, almost as if by accident. But Rose knew it wasn't an accident.

"C'mon," she smiled happily, "Let's go see how good the food is!"

* * *

Rose shivered and pulled her jacket closer to her as she tiptoed down the dim corridor. It was just past two o'clock in the morning and try as she might, she couldn't get to sleep. Giving it up as a bad job, she had quickly gotten dressed and snuck out of the room. She quietly tapped at the door she had come to and waited for a few moments until it was opened. She gazed pleadingly at the unsurprised face of her lover, who let her in without a word, firmly closed the door and then pulled her into a warm embrace.

"Rose, you shouldn't be here," he whispered, brushing her hair away from her face,

"I couldn't sleep," she replied honestly, "And I wanted to talk to you,"

"Couldn't you have picked up the 'phone?"

"Wanted to see you too," said Rose, snuggling closer to him, "Don't make it sound like you don't want to see me!"

"Of course I want to see you. If I had my way, you'd never leave my presence," said the Doctor, framing her face with his hands and kissing her, "We just have to be careful. Philip is the only one who knows of our relationship and we don't want to put him in an awkward position if we get caught,"

"I know," Rose sighed, "I'm sorry,"

"It's OK, my love," he replied, "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh yeah." Rose broke away from their embrace and went and sat on his bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. "This Physics things worrying me. I don't know very much about it so how am I supposed to actually do a university course in it?"

"I'll help you," replied the Doctor, "We'll get through it somehow. Plus, you won't actually be taking the degree anyway. Chin up!"

Rose smiled tiredly at him as he cupped her chin.

"So, what are your friends like?" he asked, sitting down next to her,

"Jen and Kall are a laugh. We're getting on really well. But Lavia…" She sighed deeply. "Lavia's not really that nice and she won't be friendly which might be a problem if I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on her,"

"Maybe she's just homesick or shy," suggested the Doctor, "Give her time to adjust and maybe she'll open up,"

"Maybe," said Rose but doubting it, "I'll try my best to get through to her though,"

"That's my girl," said the Doctor.

Rose suddenly yawned widely and her head fell onto his shoulder. "Suppose I better be getting back to my room," she mumbled,

"D'ya wanna stay here tonight?" the Doctor asked, "Just tonight though. We can't do it too often,"

"I haven't got my pyjamas though," she said, holding firmly onto his hand as he pulled her upright,

"Well you're not sleeping naked in my bed. Neither of us will get any sleep!"

Rose giggled and watched as he glanced around the room before quickly shrugging off his jacket and unbuttoning his shirt before handing it over. "Here you are, wear this."

She nodded and quickly stripped down to her underwear before putting on his shirt. The Doctor watched appreciatively in between getting ready for bed himself. He then pulled back his duvet and gestured to Rose to get in first. She did so whilst bringing the cuffs of his shirt up to her nose and inhaling.

"Mmm, smells of you. I could sniff this all day."

The Doctor grinned and slid into the single bed, spooning up behind her. He entangled their feet and put his arms around her.

"Night Doctor," he heard her sigh sleepily.

He kissed her neck before bidding her a goodnight and closing his eyes.

"Doctor?"

"Mmm?" he questioned, reopening one eye,

"I can't believe you used the name Doctor John Smith yet _again_!"

The Doctor chuckled.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	4. Part four

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for all the reviews. OK, you're getting this early as SOME people have been pestering me to update (cough xXxRoses-are-redxXx and pazaz of nothing cough). If I fail my Law test tomorrow, it's all your fault! And while we're on this subject, full credit to xXxRoses-are-redxXx for coming up with the basic plot idea. Thanks hun! Please enjoy!_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

"Rose…"

"Mmm?"

"Wake up, Rose. Come on, now,"

"Too tired, lemme alone!"

"_Rose_! You need to wake up."

Rose groaned, rolled over and cuddled in tighter to the Doctor's chest. "Too warm and comfortable here," she murmured, her voice muffled in his bare chest,

"Well, tough luck, honey," replied the Doctor, "It's six AM and…"

"_What_?" Rose snapped her eyes open and sat up, staring incredulously at the Doctor, "Why'd you wake me so early?"

"You need to get back to your room," her lover replied, "The other lecturers are going to be moving around soon and we don't want to get caught,"

"Yeah, OK," she replied, rubbing the last bits of sleep out of her eyes and stretching, before looking in surprise at the shirt she wore, "I forgot I was wearing this!"

"You can keep it if you want," the Doctor said,

"Yay!" Rose cried, beaming.

The Doctor laughed and hauled her out of bed, intercepting her for a good morning kiss before she began to shove her jeans and trainers on.

"I'll see you later on," she promised, picking up her t-shirt and jacket off the floor, "Do I have a lecture with you today?"

"After lunch," replied the Doctor, "You've got more welcome meetings this morning."

Rose groaned. "They're so boring!"

"But important," the Doctor countered, tweaking her nose. She grimaced at him and suddenly hugged him.

"Thanks for letting me stay over last night," she murmured into his ear, "Love you,"

"Love you too," the Doctor replied, "Now scram!"

* * *

Rose managed to find her way back to her room without anyone seeing her. She stood against the door, breathing deeply and thinking about the enormous task that she, Jack and the Doctor had undertaken. She hoped that Lavia would become a bit more approachable soon as it would make life so much easier. Kall and Jen would be useful as well, especially if Kall had previously known Lavia. Maybe he could tell her more about the seemingly stuck up girl or even, more about the abduction plot if he knew about it. She would have to be careful though; she didn't want to make Kall suspicious. And then there was the Doctor. Rose let a grin cross her face as she thought of all the things she could do to her lovely Doctor. It was going to be hard to be separated from him but this almost made up for it. Realising that some of her fantasies would become reality, Rose's grin reached Grinch proportions and she wandered into her en-suite bathroom for a shower.

* * *

She met up with Jen, Kall and Lavia about an hour later and they made their way down to breakfast; fortunately without getting lost. The canteen was a vast room, full of chattering students of all ages, sitting at large round tables. The lecturers sat at a long rectangular table at the top of the room to eat their meals. The Doctor was already in there when Rose and her friends arrived. He didn't look up at them, like quite a few other people did but Rose knew he knew she was present. He was like that.

The four friends quickly found four empty seats at a table and took their menus before scanning them briefly. It showed a selection of foods that were available that day. There were all sorts, suitable for all the different species of aliens that were at the university. Once they had chosen, each of them keyed in a specific code on a pad in front of them. A round hole appeared in the table and a minute later their dish of choice appeared ready to eat. It was most ingenious. The evening before, Rose had been confused and a little surprised as there had been no prior warning of this. She had watched her new friends order their food without the least bit of trouble and had successfully tried it herself, after looking up and making eye contact with the Doctor, who smiled reassuringly at her across the room. Now, Rose was enjoying her bacon and eggs (costing ten credits) after turning down the cereal and toast (five credits). Kall and Lavia were both eating a sort of bluey porridge and Jen had what looked like pink rice. Rose didn't ask to try either of their breakfasts.

A little while later, all of the new undergraduates congregated into lecture theatre one, which was the biggest. Looking around at the sea of faces, Rose was still amazed at just how many species of aliens there really were. She shared the Doctor's joy at the fact that they all studied and lived peacefully together at this unique university. After nearly three years of travelling around time and space with the Doctor, she was content with this after seeing so much fighting.

The clearing of a throat interrupted her musing and Rose looked down to see a female alien with feathers instead of hair on her head waiting to speak. Her name was Tally and had introduced herself as a Resident Tutor for Rose's set of halls.

"Good morning, I hope your first night was comfortable…"

Rose grinned secretly. Her first night had _certainly_ been comfortable.

"…Right, this meeting is for me to explain our computer system to you…"

Rose sat back with a sigh. Over two thousand years later and they _still_ couldn't make welcome meetings interesting!

* * *

As soon as the numerous meetings were over, Rose shot out of the lecture theatre; Jen and Kall hot on her heels. It was only when they reached the campus bakery, where they had decided to get lunch from, did they realise that Lavia wasn't with them.

"Never mind," Kall shrugged, "She'll find us. She knows we're here,"

"Don't you think we should go find her?" Rose asked, feeling a little guilty as she was supposed to be watching Lavia,

"No," Kall said, immediately, "Trust me, Rose. It'll only make her feel important. We don't want to inflate her ego anymore. She'll be along in a moment whining about how we abandoned her…"

Sure enough, five minutes later, Lavia turned up on the scene, looking cross.

"Why did you leave me? I can't believe you did that!"

"Sorry," Rose said, "We thought you were right behind us,"

"Well, I wasn't! You could at least have checked! I think it was very rude of you!"

"Lavia, put a sock in it, will you?" Kall interrupted.

Lavia bristled. "You can't speak to _me_ like that! I'm the…"

Kall's eyes widened and he started choking, cutting off Lavia's words. Rose looked between them, guessing that she had been about to reveal her position as heir of Piripi. She hadn't heard Lavia say this yet and as it would be the kind of thing that she would boast about, Rose could only assume that she and Kall had been told to keep it a secret. Jen hadn't appeared to have noticed anything from the way she was casually chewing her lunch.

"Come on," said Kall, at last, "Lavia, get your lunch and then we'll need to go find where we are for our physics lecture…"

* * *

"Lecture theatre three is here… so lecture theatre four should be along here somewhere…" said Jen, leading the way along the corridor, "Yeah, here it is…oh hi!"

The group arrived at the door to discover the Doctor leaning against the door with his arms folded. Just past him, inside the room, they could see a few other students, sitting and waiting.

"Hello," said the Doctor, "You're Jenico, right? Likes to be known as Jen?"

"That's right," said Jen, sounding surprised that he'd remembered,

"Good to see you," the Doctor told her, shaking her hand, "Go on in and find a seat,"

"OK," replied Jen, before doing as he said.

Kall and Lavia followed her after re-introducing themselves to the Doctor and soon only Rose was left.

"Hi, I'm Rose Tyler," she said, straight faced.

Her lover grinned. "You alright?" he questioned, gently,

"Yeah. Nearly fell asleep this morning though,"

"Don't you go falling asleep in my lecture, missy," the Doctor warned,

"I won't," Rose promised, "Unless it's _really_ boring,"

"It won't be," he said, taking her hand in his warm one and shaking it like he had done with all the others, "Always sit on the end of the row in lectures, alright? Just in case,"

"Yes sir," Rose grinned cheekily, before squeezing their still encased hands and then walking over to her friends.

"You were talking to him for a while," Jen remarked,

"Yeah, he was teasing me about getting lost yesterday," said Rose, saying the first thing that came into her mind.

Kall laughed. "He seems nice."

"Yeah," said Jen, gazing at the Doctor, "Kinda cute too,"

"Yeah," nodded Rose, secretly wondering what her new friends would say if they knew that she'd spent last night cuddled up with their new lecturer, in his bed.

After a bit more idle chit-chat, the rest of the students had arrived and the Doctor was starting the lecture.

"Hi everybody," he grinned, "Right, we've done introductions at the door so you now know me, you lucky things. I thought we'd spend today seeing how much you already know. We'll begin the real work next session but today we'll be having a small test."

There was a unanimous groan from the students. It wasn't very loud as the students were still getting to know their lecturer.

Rose bit her lip as he prattled on, telling them to turn on the computers that were inbuilt into the desks in front of them and access the university network. How could she do the test? She barely knew any Physics and this would be proper difficult stuff. Desperately, she tried to catch the Doctor's attention but he seemed to be ignoring her as he told everybody to begin.

Immediately all around her came the tapping of keyboards as her peers began the test in earnest, typing away at top speed. Rose stared at her screen, not even beginning to understand the question. She glanced to her left and saw that Kall had already written loads so she leant over slightly to get a better look.

"No cheating!"

The Doctor's voice made Rose jump and she looked at him. He seemed to be concentrating at his desk at the front of the room with his head down but his hand seemed to be patting mid-air, almost as if to tell her to calm down and it would be alright.

Feeling comforted, Rose looked afresh at the test and clicked her way through the questions, trying to find one that she could attempt.

There!

There was a question on space. She knew a bit about that as it had been a topic which had fascinated her when she was younger. It was a bit ironic seeing as she now studied it in detail as she walked through the stars with her Doctor. Taking a deep breath, Rose began to type. She could do this! She could! Only there was that question on electromagnetism and that other one of quantum physics…

Suffice to say, twenty minutes later as the first people began to trickle out, having completed the test, Rose felt very depressed. None of it made any sense. She struggled on for a further ten minutes, in which time her three friends had finished and left, before giving up and looking around. There was only one student left in the room and he was in the process of leaving too. He looked at her and gave her a sympathetic smile before walking out of the door, closing it quietly behind him.

Rose glared at the screen, fighting back the hot, angry tears that were building behind her eyelids and dismally typing the same thing over and over again.

_I am so thick. I am so thick. I am so thick_

Suddenly a presence sat down beside her,

"You're not thick," it said.

Rose sighed. "I am, Doctor. I don't know any of this stuff."

The Doctor snaked his arm around her waist; his hand creeping under her top to draw patterns on her skin. "No, you're not," he said, firmly, "You just haven't studied Physics before in detail like all the others have. I'm sure if the test had been on Psychology or History or Law, you'd have passed it no problem."

Rose sighed again and rested her head on his shoulder. "Still doesn't change the fact that I'm rubbish at Physics,"

"Rose!" exclaimed the Doctor, "Please don't worry about it, angel. Look, d'ya want me to go through this paper with you and explain some of the science?"

"It might help, yeah," said Rose, heavily,

"Alright," replied the Doctor, "But only as long as you cheer up first!" His hand found her ribs and he began to tickle her, making her firstly squeal with surprise and then erupt into giggles.

"That's better," he continued, when he saw a smile on her face, "You must be happy; Doctor's orders!"

"Alright Doctor," Rose complied, snuggling into his side and wrapping her arms around him, "Teach me Physics then."

* * *

About an hour later, Rose quietly left the lecture theatre knowing quite a bit more about Physics than she had before. The Doctor was a brilliant teacher but she suspected that his teaching method of kissing her every time she got something right might not work on everybody. She walked back to her room, thinking up a decent excuse as for why she was so late as she went. Upon reaching her corridor, she had just concluded that she should say that she was phoning her Mum (and she really ought to do that for real soon) when a scream penetrated her thoughts.

"What are you _doing_? No! Get off me!"

It was coming from Lavia's room.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	5. Part five

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for all the reviews. Some of you lot have really dirty minds : P Please enjoy this chapter!_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

Rose immediately sprinted down the corridor and burst in through Lavia's door, which had mercifully been left slightly open. She looked around in a panic; expecting to see a crowd of aliens all forcibly holding the Piripi heir but she didn't. Instead, she saw Kall standing in the middle of the room, holding Lavia in a head lock.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

Kall looked up with a grin on his face. "Just having some fun with Lavia here," he explained, "Nothing to worry about,"

"You moron!" Lavia shouted, forcing her way out of the head lock, "What do you think you were doing? How dare you creep up behind me and do that!"

"Lavia, chill out!" Kall laughed, "I was just having a laugh,"

"Well, I don't find it very funny!" stormed Lavia, her fur covered face seeming to glow red from her anger, "Get out of my room, both of you!" She faced Rose properly. "I don't remember giving you permission to enter my room either!"

"I was just checking you were alright," Rose spluttered, unable to believe her ears, "I was trying to help!"

"Just get out!" yelled Lavia, "Leave me alone!"

Rose and Kall glanced at one another, shrugged and walked out together.

"Jeez, someone needs an attitude adjustment," Kall muttered,

"Yeah," Rose sighed,

"Where were you anyway? Did it really take you that long to finish that test?"

"Nah," she replied, "I was phoning my Mum,"

"Ah," said Kall, "Well, since the Doctor has graciously given us no work to do, do you want to go to the canteen?"

"I need to go do something first," Rose said, suddenly realising something, "Shall I meet you and Jen there in say, fifteen minutes?"

"Sure," Kall said, watching as she jogged off back down the corridor. He shook his head. There was something odd about that girl.

* * *

'She was certainly getting her recommended amount of exercise today', Rose thought as she ran as fast as she could back through the university to the lecture theatre that she had recently vacated. She pushed open the door and stuck her head in; her heart dropping as she realised that it was now deserted.

Frowning, she turned around and headed towards the lecturers accommodation. As she jogged down a corridor however, the back of someone wearing a brown pinstriped suit appeared, their back facing her as they chatted to someone else. Rose looked around and grinned as she noticed a side cupboard to her left. Darting into it, she pulled the door almost closed and put her eye to the crack; watching and waiting for her lover to come walking down the corridor.

At last he did and just as he had passed by the cupboard that Rose was hiding in, she pushed open the door, shot out a hand and pulled him into the cupboard, slapping her free hand over his mouth as soon as she was able to.

He stood in front of her, his eyes questioning but amused as she slowly took her hand away.

"There are better ways of catching my attention, you know," he remarked immediately,

"I've wanted to do that for years," Rose confessed, with a smirk,

"What, the whole routine?" the Doctor said huskily, drawing her body towards his and lowering his lips to hers,

"Uh huh," Rose breathed, threading her fingers through his silky hair as they kissed slowly but passionately, their tongues duelling lazily.

Suddenly, the door was yanked open and the corridor light shone in on the lover's faces. They immediately broke apart and screwed up their eyes; their hearts thudding madly.

"I should've known," drawled a familiar voice, "Trust you two to be snogging in the janitor's cupboard!"

"She dragged me in here," protested the Doctor, taking Rose's hand and pulling her out of the enclosed space.

Rose grinned mischievously at Jack and squeezed the Doctor's hand.

"What did you want anyway?" he asked her, after squeezing back, "You can't have just wanted a snog- we just spent the past hour doing that,"

"Oh, spare me the details," muttered Jack dramatically.

Rose smiled at him, her eyes searching his face for a minute, before reaching out for his hand. "Something kind of just happened with Lavia but it was a false alarm- just Kall messing around," she reassured her two men, "Thing is, I realised that what if it hadn't been a false alarm? How would I have contacted you two to come help? By the time I'd found you, it would have been too late,"

"That's a fair point," Jack said, nodding his head,

"Yeah, we do need some sort of alarm button," the Doctor mused, "I'll speak to Philip now and see what he can suggest otherwise I'll go have a look on the TARDIS,"

"Oooh, say hi to her from me!" Rose said, only half-joking,

"OK. I'll see you guys later," promised the Doctor, checking the corridor was still empty before swooping down and kissing Rose again and then striding away.

"Jack, are you alright?" asked Rose, looking up at her brother,

"Yeah, I'm fine," replied the ex-Time Agent, seeming surprised at her question,

"Alright," Rose said, "But you know you can talk to me if you need to,"

"Thanks honey," Jack said, giving her a hug, "But I'm OK, really."

Rose stayed in his embrace for a moment before realising that it might not be a good idea for a student to hug a janitor in public where anyone could see. "Do you wanna come to my room?" she questioned,

"Best offer I've had all day," Jack grinned, winking and leering at her.

Rose grinned back before they walked off together.

* * *

Jack leant against the headboard in Rose's room and watched as she bustled around making two cups of tea before coming over, placing them safely on her bedside table and then climbing onto her bed, putting her head comfortably on Jack's lap.

"What's your first day been like?" she asked him,

"Kinda boring really. I've been just doing janitor stuff. You won't believe the amount of things that need fixing," Jack replied, playing with her hair, "And, of course, I've been keeping my eyes open for anything suspicious. Nothing to report yet,"

"Cool," Rose said, before grinning slyly, "Have you met any nice fellow janitors yet?"

"None that I'm interested in!" Jack laughed, "I have made a friend though. He's called Jont; same species as Lavia. He's been here for a few years, working as a janitor and he loves it!"

"That's great. Does he know why you're here?"

"Nah, I don't think anyone does except Philip and some people back on Piripi," explained Jack, "And let's just hope it stays that way!"

"Does that mean no more cupboard jaunts with the Doctor?" pouted Rose.

Jack shook his head. "It really is a sign of how things have changed- me telling _you_ off about that sort of thing!"

Rose smiled. "So this Jont..? He's also from Piripi?"

"Yup," Jack confirmed, "There seems to be quite a few of them here. You don't see huge numbers of humans here, for example. It's kinda suspicious,"

"You don't think one of them is a traitor or a spy or something?" asked Rose, sitting up and facing him.

Jack shrugged. "I dunno. Might just be my imagination,"

"It can't be Kall," stated Rose, immediately, "He's too nice. Doesn't seem the type,"

"Nor does Jont but we don't know. It's probably best that we stay alert, especially around them,"

"Alright Jack," Rose said, "But I refuse to believe that Kall could be involved in this plot,"

"He probably isn't but you know. Say, can I use your loo, honey?" He grinned. "I love using that particular piece of English slang!"

"It's better than '_john_'," scoffed Rose, with a teasing smile, "Anyway, go ahead." She gestured to her en suite and watched as he went in and closed the door. Remembering her cooling tea, she picked it up and sipped at it, leaning against the headboard. She suddenly felt very tired.

"Rose, are you in here?" came Jen's voice out of the blue. She banged at the door and it swung slowly open, revealing the blue skinned alien. "Oh, here you are! You didn't come down and meet us in the canteen,"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rose gasped, "I totally forgot, I…"

The rest of her sentence was cut off by Jack opening the bathroom door and strolling out. Jen's mouth fell open.

"Erm…Jen…" stuttered Rose,

"Right, that's your toilet all sorted out ma'am," said Jack, without batting an eyelid, "Sorry for the inconvenience. If you have anymore problems, just contact one of us again,"

"Err…OK. Thanks Jack!" replied Rose.

The ex-time agent smiled and walked out of the room, only stopping to briefly say "hello!" to the staring Jen. She looked at Rose in amazement before poking her head out of the door to watch the retreating form of Captain Jack Harkness.

"Who was _that_?" Jen finally managed to utter,

"Jack," replied Rose, calmly, "He's a janitor here. He came to fix my… toilet,"

"Blimey he's hot," Jen gushed, "Do you reckon janitors can date students?"

"You'll have to ask him," grinned Rose,

"I _daren't_!" Jen gasped, "But, oh my Lord, he's a dream!"

"Yeah," said Rose, her mind working furiously as she had the first inkling of an idea.

Life could be about to get very interesting at the University of Mars.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	6. Part six

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for all the reviews. Sorry this is a little late; I've had the most hectic week and I bet it's not gonna get any better either! Please enjoy! Oh and by the way, I left Physics behind when I finished high school so sorry for any mistakes lol_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

Three days later, it was a Monday and the start of a brand new week at the University of Mars. Rose wasn't happy, however. She hadn't seen the Doctor since their last lecture the previous Friday and other than speaking to him briefly on the university network, she hadn't had any contact and was missing him a lot.

Saturday and Sunday had been spent exploring the campus along with her new friends and growing closer to them- well, except really for Lavia who remained tight lipped about herself. Rose couldn't really blame her though. She knew how difficult it was to keep a secret, when even the tiniest slip of the tongue could give it away. Over the weekend, Rose had learnt that Kall came from a wealthy family back on Piripi and his parents had titles. On the other hand, Jen came from a middle class family and she lived with only her mother. She also revealed that Crespallion was unstable and Jen could foresee a war breaking out in possibly the not so distant future. Rose told her friends that she came from London in England on Earth and gave the basic truth about herself. Except for the fact that she came from just over two thousand years in the past and her boyfriend was in fact their Physics lecturer.

* * *

The Doctor rubbed his hands together and looked up at his students. "Right then, guys. Today, we're going to build on your knowledge on forces. Let's refresh the basics. Who can tell me the force that keeps us on Mars? Jen?"

"Gravity!" said Jen, confidently,

"Correct!" said the Doctor, "Which force stops us from slipping too much? Rose, do you know..? Rose?"

"Huh, what?" asked Rose,

"Which force stops us from slipping on the floor?" repeated the Doctor patiently.

Rose scowled. "How should I know?"

The Doctor blinked. "It is basic knowledge, Rose. Kall, do you know?"

"Friction," he answered, shooting an odd glance at Rose. The Doctor, too, studied her without appearing to.

"Right," he said, "Next question…"

* * *

An hour later, the lecture was drawing to a close. Rose hadn't contributed to the discussion at all and had just sat there, with no expression on her face. The Doctor decided to ask her one last question.

"Rose, you have the last question. Can you remember what the constant speed is called that an object falls at when the gravitational force is balanced by the frictional forces?"

His angel just looked at him blankly. The Doctor sighed.

"OK, let's wrap it up there. See you all next time."

The students gathered their notes and began to file out of the theatre. Rose and her friends were just at the bottom of the stairs when the Doctor spoke again.

"Rose, will you wait behind a few minutes?"

She nodded wordlessly, waved a goodbye to her friends and perched on the lecturer's desk at the front of the room. The Doctor waited until everybody had left before pushing the door closed and walking over to stand directly in front of Rose.

"Right you, what's up?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," Rose replied quickly, staring at her lap.

The Doctor sighed before slowly reaching for her hand and cupping her chin with his other hand, gently forcing her head up until her eyes met his. "Are you sure?"

Rose sighed this time, staring into the concerned depths of the Doctor's eyes. She knew she couldn't lie to him. "Alright, I'm not fine but I'm OK,"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head. She did but she wasn't sure what was making her feel so low. She gazed pleadingly at her lover. "Can I have a hug?"

"Course you can. You don't need to ask," the Doctor instantly replied, stepping forward so she could wrap her arms securely around his waist. He responded by putting his arms around her shoulders and dropping an affectionate kiss on the top of her bent head. "You know you can talk to me whenever you need to," he whispered.

Rose nodded but didn't reply, keeping her face buried in the folds of his jacket.

The Doctor squeezed her reassuringly. "Can you come to my room tonight at about ten?"

She nodded silently again before lifting her face to look at him. "For a progress chat?"

"Yup," said the Doctor, "I suppose you'd better be going now or your friend's will be getting suspicious."

An emotion flickered across Rose's face, too fast for the Doctor to catch, before she nodded and climbed off the desk.

"See you later, then," she mumbled, pressing a kiss to his lips before leaving the room.

Behind her, the Doctor looked after her worriedly. Something was wrong with his angel. He hoped she'd feel better soon. He left the theatre a few seconds later, not noticing Kall darting out of sight around the corner.

* * *

Rose's spirits had lifted by the time she'd had something to eat at lunchtime and joined her friends in the university library to do some prep work for a tutorial in a few days. They had grabbed some computers in a circle and were having a whispered conversation, keeping an eye out for the librarian who didn't tolerate talking.

"I saw Jack again earlier," Jen began, "He was walking down to the canteen when I was and he said hi,"

"Cool," Rose grinned. She hadn't yet commenced Operation Get Jack and Jen Together but it looked like things were moving smoothly all by themselves. "He probably fancies you," she added for good measure,

"Do you think so?" Jen squealed,

"Shh!" said Kall. He looked at Rose. "Do you fancy anyone, Rose?"

"No," she replied, quickly.

Kall and Jen exchanged a smirk.

"Well, you do seem to be staring at the Doctor an awful lot in lectures," teased Jen, "And I don't mean staring at him out of boredom."

Rose blushed. "I don't!"

"You do!" Jen cried,

"Go on Rose, admit it. You fancy the Doctor," Kall said, with a wicked grin. Rose glanced at him. His expression was making her feel uncomfortable and nervous. It was almost as if he knew… nah, he couldn't. It wasn't possible… was it?

"Does it matter if I do," she asked, failing miserably to keep a smile off her face. She watched as Jen squealed with excitement and Kall smirked. Even Lavia managed a grin. "Anyway, who do _you_ fancy, Kall?"

His smirk instantly disappeared and he glanced around, almost nervously, seeming to focus on Lavia quite a bit. "No…no-one," he stammered, "I don't fancy anyone,"

"Aww, come on Kall!" Jen wheedled, "Me and Rose have revealed our secrets. Go on, we won't tell!"

"I told you, I don't fancy anyone," Kall said, sharply, "Look, can we change the subject?"

"OK," Rose nodded, her eyes narrowed at his reaction, "Say, does anyone fancy going to the bar later? I'm in the mood to get wrecked."

* * *

A hurried yet quiet tapping on the door made the Doctor and Jack stop their conversation in the Doctor's bedroom that evening. The Doctor went to the door and cautiously opened it, pulling it entirely open when he saw who it was.

"Hey Rose," Jack said, as she scuttled past where he was sitting on the desk chair,

"Hi," she replied, pulling back the covers of the Doctor's bed and diving in, "I'm freezing!"

"I'm not surprised," the Doctor said, closing the door and coming and standing next to the bed, "What are you wearing?"

"Clubbing outfit. Me and the others are going to the club after I'm done here. Told them I'd meet them there," Rose explained, bunching more of the duvet around her shivering shoulders, "Gods, I'm _still_ cold!"

"Budge over," the Doctor requested, climbing into bed with her and pulling her to sit between his legs and then wrapping his arms around her so she was cocooned inside his embrace. "There, is that better?"

"Loads, thanks," Rose said, snuggling further into him, "Sorry I'm late anyway. Did I miss anything?"

"Nope," Jack said, watching his two best friends with something akin to envy in his eyes. "Aww, look at you two!"

Rose smiled at him gently. It was definitely time to put her Operation into practice.

"I've found a solution for the problem you raised the other day," said the Doctor, "Jack, they're on the desk."

The ex-time agent picked up a plain box and handed out a watch to Rose and the Doctor. They were similar to the one that Jack sometimes wore with different gadgets on it. Rose examined it closely. As well as the digital clock and all the regular things found on a typical digital watch, there was an unlabelled button on one side and on the underside, there were the letters 'SG' engraved onto it.

"What's that mean?" she wanted to know,

"That's the initials of the person who invented this particular gadget," said the Doctor. He picked up Rose's slender wrist and deftly attached the watch to it. "This button is the panic button. Press it whenever something happens and you need us to come find you quickly. The watch itself has a locator in it so we can track you. If it's one of us that presses the panic button, then your watch will begin to continuously beep. If that happens, press this button on the left here and a hologram appears…like this."

Rose gasped in awe at the hologram and examined it curiously. There was a flickering red dot in it and a transparent sort of map.

"That's Jack," the Doctor pointed out, "He just activated the button and the map will lead us to his location,"

"Wow," said Rose, impressed, "That's just so… _Spock_!"

Jack laughed while the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Has anyone found anything suspicious, anyway?" asked Jack.

Both the Doctor and Rose shook their heads.

"Nothing but maybe they just haven't done anything yet or even maybe something isn't _going_ to happen. Just keep watching out," the Doctor advised,

"Will do, boss," Jack grinned, "Anyway, I have to love ya and leave ya both. I have a date with Jont in the bar,"

"Alright," Rose said, clambering out of bed and giving him a hug, "I'll see you soon,"

"Love ya, babe," Jack said, kissing her on the cheek, "See ya, Doctor,"

"Bye, Jack."

He grinned and strode out of the door, leaving Rose standing at the door with her back towards the Doctor, who was still sat on his bed. There was silence for a minute before the Doctor spoke.

"Are you feeling any better than you were earlier?"

Rose shrugged, still not turning around. "I'm still OK,"

"OK, well like I said before, you can come and talk to me anytime you need to."

Rose sighed. "But I can't, can I?"

The Doctor frowned. "What do you mean?"

She turned to look at him, her face pale but determined. "I can't come and talk to you whenever I need to because I need you a lot and I can't come too often because it'll look _suspicious_!" Rose spat the last word out, her eyes gleaming with her growing anger. "I'm fed up of creeping around university like our relationship is wrong when it is so completely _right_!"

"Rose…" the Doctor tried to interrupt, standing up,

"No Doctor! I love you so much and I'm so proud to be your girlfriend, your lover, your whatever you want to call it, and I want to show everybody that by being affectionate with you in public like before but instead we have to have snatched little moments in cupboards and empty lecture theatres and, yeah it was exiting at first, but now, a week later, I'm _sick_ of it!" Tears were now running down Rose's face.

"Rose… please don't cry," the Doctor begged, putting a hand on her shaking arm. She shrugged it off angrily.

"I'm fed up of lying to my friends as well! I like them a lot but nearly every damn thing I say to them is a lie and I hate it! I'm so scared that they're gonna discover the truth and hate me for it! I already think that Kall knows about our relationship!"

"What?" asked the Doctor, sharply, "How?"

"I don't know!" Rose cried, "I just wanna go back to London to see Mum and Matt and Kirsty and Lauren because I miss them so much but I can't! I'm stuck here babysitting a stuck up girl, lying to everyone and not even being able to _hug_ the most important man in my life, the man I love and trust more than anyone else in the entire universe, just in case it looks _suspicious_! I hate it, Doctor, I hate it so much!"

With that, Rose spun around and ran out of the door and along the corridor, furiously wiping away her tears as she went. Once she had gotten out of the lecturer's accommodation, she stopped and peered at her face in a mirror, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. Deciding that she didn't look _too_ bad, she continued on to the club where she had arranged to meet her friends. A Hyper Vodka was definitely in order. Or maybe even a couple…

Meanwhile, the Doctor was left alone in his room, feeling terrible and longing to run after and comfort his angel but knowing he couldn't otherwise it would look suspicious. Rose was so right.

He hated it too.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	7. Part seven

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for all the reviews although I'm not getting any alerts through to my email account so some of them haven't arrived. I really hope this is sorted out soon; it's so irritating and it also means that if some of you have the same problem, you're not going to know about this chapter! Anyway, only three weeks left of college and then I SHOULD be able to update a bit more regularly. Hope you enjoy- anyone who loves Doctor and Rose fluff should like this chapter. Oh, and it's probably best not to read the first part whilst eating…_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

The Doctor watched his students coming into the lecture theatre the next morning at nine AM. They were all chattering, the occasional one stifling a yawn as they sat down and waited for him to begin. Jen, Lavia and Kall were among the last to arrive and quickly took their seats. Rose wasn't with them.

Thinking that she might just be running a bit late and had sent her friends on ahead, the Doctor began the lecture, anticipating the moment the door opened and she slipped in. He was wondering what she'd be like this morning after what had happened last night. The minutes slipped by, however, and still Rose didn't appear, increasing the Doctor's worry more and more. He thought about asking her friends but it might look too suspicious- there, there was that horrible word again. Lectures weren't compulsory but it was in the student's best interest to attend them.

By twenty minutes to ten, the Doctor's worry had turned into fear- fear that something had happened to his angel and she hadn't been able to activate her panic button. He ended the lecture early, much to the student's surprise and delight and as soon as he was able to, he jogged quickly to Rose's room, taking care to stay out of her friend's sight, and then knocked on the door.

No-one answered or even called out.

His hearts in his mouth, he withdrew the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the door, breathing a sigh of relief when it clicked open. The Doctor cautiously opened the door and looked around, hoping to see Rose but he was disappointed. The room appeared deserted and the bed looked like it had been vacated in a hurry. Frowning, he looked around, confused about where she could be until he heard a gentle sobbing coming from the en-suite. He strode to the door and looked in to discover Rose hunched over the toilet, still in her pyjamas and shivering violently.

"Rose, my love, are you alright?" he asked, rushing inside and kneeling down next to her,

"Does… does it _look_ like I'm alright?" Rose demanded shakily,

"Sorry, bit of a stupid question," the Doctor said ruefully, brushing some of her hair off her face, "Have you been sick?"

Rose started to nod before clapping a hand over her mouth. "Yes," she whispered instead, "A couple of minutes ago. Think… think I went a bit heavy on the alcohol last night." She retched suddenly, the force making tears drip out of the corner of her eyes. The Doctor began to rub her back soothingly.

"What did you drink?" he asked, reaching for a hair band that was lying on the edge of the sink next to him,

"A couple of Hyper Vodkas and we shared some shots," Rose mumbled,

"Oh Rose," the Doctor said, tying back her hair so it wouldn't get in her way if she was sick again, "Hasn't Jack taught you anything about Hyper Vodkas? They're incredibly strong drinks,"

"I just wanted to forget," Rose whispered.

The Doctor immediately found her hand and squeezed it. "It'll be alright, I promise," he said, softly. With his free hand, he reached up and filled a glass with some water out of the tap. "Drink this," he requested.

Rose took the glass, some of the water spilling as her hand shook, before putting it to her lips. She had several sips before gasping, shoving the glass back at the Doctor and vomiting, retching several times before her head came up again.

"Do you think you're done?" asked the Doctor,

"Yeah," Rose weakly replied, taking a sip of the water, gargling it and spitting it back out before wiping her mouth on her sleeve. She sighed before collapsing sideways against the Doctor. He hugged her to him tightly.

"Are you feeling better now?" he asked,

"I don't feel as sick anymore but I've got a really bad headache," Rose said, wincing, "And… and my period started this morning so I have cramps." She blushed. "Maybe that's why I was feeling so down yesterday,"

"Maybe, but what you said last night…"

"I'm sorry Doctor. I shouldn't have shouted at you," Rose interrupted sadly, "It's not your fault,"

"It's OK," said the Doctor, "But what you said last night, I agree with you. I hate this situation too,"

"You do?" Rose asked, tilting her head to look up at him, "I thought that it wasn't really bothering you 'cause you always seemed fine,"

"Oh, it's bothering me alright," he replied, "Not having you constantly near me is killing me,"

"I just miss you so much," Rose sniffed, "It's really stupid 'cause you're right here but… you know what I mean,"

"I do," the Doctor confirmed. He paused for a second. "Rose, if you really are hating this, we can always just pack up, get in the TARDIS and leave. We can go and see your Mum and then find some relaxed planet to visit. There's nothing keeping us here if you don't want to stay."

Rose rested her cheek against his shoulder and thought. She was really tempted, so tempted…

"I can't," she finally said, "It wouldn't be fair and Lavia would be in even more danger." She turned around to properly face the Doctor. "I'll just have to grin and bear it, I suppose. It's probably just my damn hormones playing up,"

"Are you sure?"

Rose nodded and smiled weakly at him before throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. He hugged her back equally as tightly and the pair stayed in that position for a while, each taking comfort and strength from the other.

Finally, the Doctor lifted his head from where it had been buried in the crook of Rose's neck. "Right then you, as your teacher, your doctor and most importantly, your lover, I say you should go back to bed and spend the rest of the day there."

Rose lifted her head to look him in the eye. "Will you come with me?"

"Of course. There's nothing more important than you. We'll spend today hidden in here together, just you and me," the Doctor said, standing up. He then picked Rose up bridal style and carefully carried her through to her bed to set her down, before standing back to look at her.

"My head, it's killing me," Rose moaned.

The Doctor jumped, his memories automatically taking him back to moments before his regeneration into his body, when Rose had been Bad Wolf… He shook his head. "Did you bring any paracetamol?"

Rose nodded, her face screwed up as the throbbing in her head seemed to get worse, "It's in my wash bag in the bathroom… Eugh, I need to get out of these pyjamas; they stink of sick!"

"OK, Rose," the Doctor said, striding across to her drawers and rifling though them until he found a clean pair. He threw them onto the bed. "You get changed into these and I'll get you some paracetamol. Oh, do you need any towels or anything?"

"No!" Rose laughed slightly. "How come you're so calm about periods and stuff? Whenever I mentioned them in front of Mickey, he always went all shy and quiet!"

The Doctor snorted. "Well Mickey was an idiot. I'm over nine hundred, Rose, and I've had many female companions along the way. You could say I've gotten used to them. And, I also think that the whole process is a fantastic thing. It brings life."

"I'd like to hear you say that if you had to suffer periods monthly," Rose muttered, alternating between clutching her stomach and her head.

The Doctor grinned and entered the bathroom.

* * *

When he came out again, it was to discover Rose still sitting on the edge of her bed but with her clean pyjama top stuck around her head.

"Need a little help there?" he asked, with a chuckle, walking forward and tugging it down to reveal her face,

"Thanks," Rose said, pulling her hair out of the back of her top.

The Doctor leant forward and pressed his lips to hers, deepening the kiss before Rose pulled away.

"Don't. I must taste of sick," she grimaced,

"I don't care," replied the Doctor, "You're my Rose and I love you and I think you look beautiful,"

"Even when I've just been throwing up?" asked Rose, one eyebrow raised,

"Even when you've just thrown up," said the Doctor, "Now, take this and get into bed, woman!"

Rose smiled, swallowed the pill he handed her and then clambered into her bed, leaving the duvet open as an invitation. The Doctor grinned, took off his jacket and tie, toed off his converses and sat down next to Rose, his back against the headboard. Rose rested her head on his lap and smiled as he tenderly pulled the duvet up snug around her shoulders and began to stroke her hair soothingly.

"Thank you, Doctor," she yawned,

"You're welcome, Rose. Now, go to sleep. Sweet dreams."

With the comforting feeling of the Doctor stroking her hair and the knowledge that he was hating them being separated just as she was, Rose did just that.

* * *

Rose woke up again a couple of hours later, feeling refreshed. She yawned and stretched slightly.

"You feeling better?" asked the Doctor, sliding his hand down to stroke her cheek,

"Yeah," she sighed happily, shuffling up the bed to lay her head on his chest, "All the pain's gone now,"

"That's good," the Doctor replied, putting his arms protectively around her and cuddling her, "But you're still not getting out of this bed until I say so,"

"Bossy!" Rose moaned, lying contentedly in his arms,

"Yeah, but you like it!" he teased. Rose smiled at him.

"Doctor?" she asked, after a while, "You know when we went to see the end of the world just after we first met? Well, Jen's race was a basic slave race there but it isn't now. What happens to them?"

The Doctor sighed. He had been wondering when Rose would ask him this. "There's going to be a war in about three years from now on Crespallion," he answered, "It lasts for many years and Jen's people loose badly and they have to work for the winning race as a consequence. But due to corrupt governments, they become slaves and no-one can help them."

Rose sniffed. "That's horrible. Can't we do something?"

"I'm sorry, angel," said the Doctor, "We can't. It's already part of history."

She nodded. "I thought it would be something like that… God, Jen's not gonna have much of a future,"

"Some manage to get away. Maybe Jen will,"

"I hope so," Rose sighed.

The Doctor moved down so his face was inches away from hers, staring into her eyes. "Rose," he whispered, "Guess what?"

"What?" Rose asked, quietly, still sad about Jen's possible fate,

"I love you," he murmured, "So much."

Her face brightened. "I love you too," she whispered, against his lips.

The Doctor rolled over so he was lying on top of Rose, his knees and elbows supporting his weight. "That's good," he said, "That's fantastic. You know why?"

"No…" Rose breathed, straining upwards in an effort to reach his lips,

"'Cause I get to do this…" He leant down and finally their lips met. Rose moaned as he deepened the kiss after a moment, nibbling slightly on her bottom lip before recapturing her mouth.

_KNOCK KNOCK_

They broke apart breathlessly, staring at each other with wide eyes.

"Who… who is it?" Rose called out,

"It's me, Jen. I've just come to see if you're alright now."

The Doctor immediately sprang up, helping Rose up at the same time.

"Uh, I'm feeling better now thanks!" she said loudly,

"That's good. I've bought you some lunch. Can I come in?"

"Erm, hang on, I just need to… tidy up a bit. Got clothes all over the place!" Rose called, grabbing the Doctor's arm, "What do we do?" she mouthed.

The Doctor glanced around. "I'll hide in the bathroom," he whispered, "Make sure she doesn't come in!"

Rose nodded and he crept quickly across the room and into the en-suite. Rose took a deep breath and looked around.

"Rose, are you nearly done? I don't care if your room is messy, you've seen the state of mine!" shouted Jen, through the door,

"Gimme a sec, Jen!" Rose shouted back.

The bathroom door reopened. "Rose!" the Doctor hissed, "My jacket!"

She quickly grabbed the garment and threw it at him, suddenly giggling helplessly,

"Shh!" the Doctor whispered, with a big grin, struggling not to laugh himself. Rose stuffed her cuffs into her mouth, to stifle her laughter. The Doctor hugged her, kissing her forehead. "Calm down, love," he murmured in her ear.

Rose forced her face straight. "OK," she nodded at him, before he closed the door. She smoothed down her clothes and her hair, trying to make it look like she _hadn't_ just been having a major make-out session in bed, before walking to the bedroom door and opening it.

"_There_ you are!" Jen said, "You OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rose answered, closing the door behind her friend, "Just had a nap and I'm all better now,"

"Great. Here's some lunch for you anyway," Jen replied, sitting down on the bed and brandishing a bag which Rose assumed was full of food,

"Cheers," she said gratefully, about to collapse on the bed when she noticed that the Doctor's converses were lying obviously on the floor. Frantically, she kicked them under the bed, her heart hammering. "So, did I miss anything this morning?"

"No," Jen said, "He didn't even ask where you were or anything. He ended the lecture twenty minutes early as well,"

"Can't believe I missed that!" Rose said, nervously standing up as her friend looked around the room curiously,

"Why do you have a tie in here?" she asked, suddenly,

"A tie? Oh! That's… that's my boyfriends'." Rose swallowed. "I bought it with me to… erm… to have something of his with me,"

"That's sweet," Jen nodded, "Do you miss him?"

"Loads," Rose said, truthfully, "Wish he was here,"

"What's his name?"

"John," Rose answered, resisting the urge to roll her eyes,

"Ha! That's the same name as the Doctor! Do you have something about guys called John, Rose?" chuckled Jen.

Inside the bathroom, the Doctor snorted loudly.

"What was that?" asked Jen, in surprise.

Rose prayed to whatever God's were listening. "My stomach, sorry. I haven't eaten anything since last night,"

"Why don't you eat your lunch then? I don't mind. In fact, can I use your toilet? Saves me having to go to my room,"

"Erm… I'd rather you didn't," Rose said, her heart thudding, It's a bit of a mess as I was sick in there earlier…"

"OK, maybe not," grimaced Jen, with a laugh.

Rose had just breathed a sigh of relief when someone else hammered at the door. She quickly went to open it. It was Jack.

"Hey honey," he said as he was walking in, having not seen Jen, "Have you seen the Doctor today? I've been to his room so many times I've lost count and he's never there. I was just wondering if he was in here with you."

Time seemed to stand still as Jen's mouth dropped open. Rose bit her lip nervously; sweat beading out on her forehead. Jack looked horrified as he suddenly realised that Jen was in the room.

"What does that mean, Rose?" Jen asked, quietly, "Why would the Doctor be in your room? What's going on?"

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	8. Part eight

**Degrees and the Doctor**

_**Thanks for all the reviews and sorry this is a little late in coming but I think it's possibly the longest chapter so far. The rating is definitely for this part but there's nothing too graphic. Hope you enjoy (and Happy December!)**_

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

Rose took a deep breath, unconsciously taking Jack's hand. Jen saw this and narrowed her eyes from where she was still sitting on Rose's bed.

"I don't know where he is," Rose told Jack quietly, "I've been in here all day."

Jack nodded slowly. "OK,"

"Why would you think that the Doctor was in here?" Jen repeated her question,

"He's been tutoring me," Rose invented, "You know how- to be honest- I'm pretty rubbish at Physics, so the Doctor offered to tutor me,"

"Right," Jen nodded, "Why would he be tutoring you in your room?"

Rose thought quickly. "He hasn't got an office and the lecture theatre is often being used,"

"Oh," Jen said, "I'm sorry, Rose. It just sounded odd,"

"It's OK," she replied, breathing out, "Just keep it quiet, alright? The Doctor told me to keep it a secret as he doesn't want the others getting jealous or think he's favouring me,"

"Sure, fine," Jen nodded before looking at Jack, "How come he knows then? And for that matter, why are you holding his hand?"

Rose looked at Jack, who nodded and squeezed her hand.

"Jack… he's my best friend and we didn't want to be separated but he couldn't get in so he got a job as a janitor here," she said,

"You see, Jen," Jack took over, sitting down next to her and putting his arm around her shoulders. Rose could see Jen blushing silver from the other side of the room. "Me and Rose, we're extremely close. She's my sister in every sense except blood and we couldn't bear to be parted so I got a job here but we try to keep our friendship a secret in case they don't like it,"

"Oh right," said the blue skinned alien, "I understand. Erm… you are just friends, right?"

Rose laughed while Jack looked confused.

"Yeah, just friends," she said, shooting a meaningful look at Jack. His eyes widened before he grinned.

"Plenty of love between us two but it's purely platonic," he said, cheerfully, "Right then Jen. Can I take you out for a drink as a thank you for keeping quiet about me and Rose?"

"Yes _please_!" Jen cried, cringing visibly as she realised how over enthusiastic she'd sounded. Jack just grinned, standing up and taking her hand.

"I'll pop in and see you later, honey," he said to Rose, winking,

"OK, see you both later then," she replied, standing back as the pair passed her, walking through the doorway. Jen looked back at her; a completely amazed and excited expression on her face. Rose couldn't help but smile as she shut her door and walked over to the bathroom door and knocked on it. "It's safe to come out now," she called.

The door opened immediately and she was swept into her lover's arms.

"You are brilliant," he muttered, "So brilliant. That excuse was just _genius_!"

"It was the first thing I could think of," Rose admitted, a proud smile slipping onto her face all the same,

"Still, it was just fantastic. It means we now have a rock solid excuse if one of your friends walks in on us accidentally," the Doctor enthused, "Unless of course, we're doing something 'unprofessional'" Here he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Rose smiled before his lips landed on hers.

* * *

The pair spent the rest of the afternoon undisturbed in Rose's room; talking, kissing and cuddling to their heart's content. They had another close shave when Kall burst in unexpectedly, wondering if she knew where Jen was. Luckily, the Doctor had just gone into the bathroom and Rose got rid of her friend as fast as possible.

Jen and Jack popped back a good four hours after they had originally left and they found Rose sitting at her desk with an open textbook in front of her, with the Doctor perched on the edge of the desk apparently tutoring her. Jack had to bite back a laugh quickly and instead suggested that they all go down for dinner as it was time to eat. The men escorted the girls to the canteen, only leaving them to go the staff table and eat. Later on, Rose returned back to her room alone, only to be rejoined by the Doctor minutes later. She feigned tiredness to get out of going out with her friends and then retired to bed, spending the night in her man's arms. Rose hadn't had such a brilliant day for a long time.

* * *

The next morning, Rose and her friends had a tutorial with the Doctor and a few other Physics students. They congregated in a small classroom with a square table in the centre, with eight chairs around it. The four friends were the last in and hurriedly took their seats; Rose happily taking the empty one right next to the Doctor.

"Hey guys," he smiled at them, "Right, welcome to your first tutorial. As I explained in the lecture last Friday, the point of these are for us to go into depth on some complex subjects and for you to ask me anything you're not sure about. Right let's get started with space…"

He began to explain the subject and the students listened, occasionally jotting notes down. Rose looked around at her friends and the three other students that she knew by appearance but not by name. They were all listening hard and being very studious but, quite frankly, Rose couldn't be bothered. Suddenly feeling daring, she slipped her hand under the table and gripped the Doctor's thigh. He didn't appear to be affected at all except for the slight tensing of his muscles that Rose could feel under her hand. She began to rub his leg slowly, running her nails across the fabric as she did so. She heard a slight hitch in his voice before his hand forcefully came down on hers, removing it from his leg but holding it tightly in his hand, rubbing his thumb softly over the back of her hand. All this while, he had continued speaking steadily.

"Rose, what do you think?" he asked suddenly, turning to her.

Rose snapped back to attention, shocked. "About what, sorry?"

"It really might be a good idea to _listen_ next time," the Doctor said sternly, only the look of amusement in his eyes giving him away,

"Sorry," Rose said meekly, lowering her head and biting the inside of her mouth to stop herself from giggling. She decided it was probably a good idea to pay attention now and she did.

Until she got distracted again.

This time, it was the Doctor's fault. He had begun to trace patterns on the back of her hand and it was tickling her. She wriggled her hand but the Doctor just squeezed it.

"Rose, is it possible for a planet to be in geostationary orbit around a black hole?" he asked her.

She looked at him, frowning at his grin. He was doing it on purpose! Right, two could play at that game…

"Technically not," she answered, "It's supposed to be beyond the laws of physics but, you know, _anything_ could happen." She carefully toed off her shoe and, briefly thanking her mother for all the years of gymnastics lessons, bent her foot to his calf and began to brush it lightly.

The Doctor swallowed. "But there's never been any recorded evidence of that happening,"

"Well," Rose answered, cleverly disentangling her hand from his and placing it on his leg again, suspiciously close to his groin, "It might happen in the future. Weirder things have happened,"

"Weirder things than something going completely against the laws of physics, which have been the same for millions of years?" asked one of the other students, sceptically,

"Absolutely," Rose smiled, 'accidentally' slipping her hand down over the Doctor's crotch and squeezing, "Don't you think so, Doctor?"

He nodded. "It's…it's possible, I suppose," he almost choked, "Right, times up. See you all tomorrow in the lecture!"

The students nodded, packed away and began to leave the room.

"Are you coming, Rose?" asked Kall,

"Just need to ask the Doctor something," she replied, "Won't be long,"

"Alright," he replied, an odd look on his face before closing the door behind him.

Meanwhile, Rose turned to look at the Doctor, a naughty smirk on her face.

"_You_!" he rasped, hoarsely, "You evil girl!"

"Are you alright, Doctor?" she asked, innocently, "You look a bit flushed,"

"You _know_ why I'm flushed," he growled, grabbing her hips and forcing her body against him,

"My, my, Doctor," Rose drawled, putting her arms around his neck so their faces were inches apart, "Do you have a banana in your pocket?"

The Doctor's answer was to passionately kiss her, his hands creeping under her top to slide over the smooth skin of her back.

"You know _exactly_ what I have in my pocket," he whispered, before kissing her again, "Now, you better be going or I'll probably end up ravishing you on this table,"

"Promises, promises," smirked Rose, with a wicked grin,

"You bet," the Doctor replied, kissing her hungrily one final time, "Go on; I'll see you soon,"

"OK," she said, "Bye sexy,"

"See ya, even sexier."

Rose grinned and skipped out of the room merrily. The Doctor meanwhile collected together his notes and left for his room. He needed a shower.

A very cold one.

* * *

That Wednesday night, it was karaoke night at the local bar at the University of Mars. According to older students and the lecturers, it was one of the highlights of the social week so Rose and her friends decided to go along.

When they got there, they each ordered a drink and sat at the bar, chatting and taking in their surroundings. The karaoke was already in full force and currently a student was singing a song that Rose had never heard of before. She suspected that it was an alien song and that the TARDIS was automatically translating it, as she had been all along.

"Hey, can we have two beers?" suddenly asked a familiar voice.

Rose swung around. "Jack!" she greeted,

"Hey Rose," he said back, with a grin, "Evening Jen," he added.

Jen blushed. "Hi Jack," she replied, "This is Kall and Lavia by the way,"

"Pleased to meet ya," he said, nodding at them,

"Jack's one of the janitors," Rose explained to Kall and Lavia, "We made friends yesterday,"

"This is Jont, by the way," Jack introduced, motioning to the person who stood next to him.

There was a range of 'hellos' from the four students, and the janitors arranged themselves comfortably next to them.

"Howdy," Jont said, taking a sip of his beer, "It's good to see two more people from Piripi here. There aren't many of us here, unlike you damn humans!" He grinned.

Jack and Rose laughed. Rose was warming up to Jont already. After all, the way she saw it, anyone who was a friend of Jack's, was a friend of hers.

"Have you worked here long?" asked Kall,

"Couple of years," replied Jont, "Miss Piripi like hell though. Nowhere quite like it."

"No," Kall agreed, "I love our home planet."

Lavia nodded in agreement. "It's so different here. I can't wait to get back there at the end of this semester,"

"I haven't been back," said Jont sadly, "I can't afford the shuttle to get there and back in time,"

"You could come in ours," offered Kall, "I'm sure Lavia's parents won't mind…"

Rose stopped listening after that, instead chatting with Jack and Jen, who seemed to do an awful lot of flirting. Rose smiled inwardly. Things were moving along quickly.

"Right then, who's doing karaoke?" asked Jont, about an hour later,

"Oh, no way!" said Jen, echoing Rose's thoughts,

"Come on," Jack pleaded, "We could go up together,"

"Go on, Jen!" encouraged Rose,

"Alright," Jen sighed, "So long as you sing with me, Jack,"

"I promise, honey," he said,

"Great. What about you, Rose?" asked Jen,

"Absolutely not. No way. Not happening," she replied, immediately,

"Aww, come on!" cried Kall, "Jen's doing it and Jack, and me and Jont have decided to go up as well!"

"Yeah, c'mon Rose!" wheedled the others.

Rose could feel her resolve weakening.

"The Doctor's in here," Jack whispered, "He's just walked in."

That did it.

"Alright," she said, determinedly.

Her friends cheered.

"OK, we'll go up first," Jack decided, pulling Jen to her feet.

Rose watched them walk over to the stage, decide on a song and then they were introduced by the event organiser.

Jack grinned as the intro began to play and then began to sing, "_Summer lovin', had me a blast_…"

Jen took a deep breath and sang her part of the duet. "_Summer lovin', happened so fast_…"

"_I met a girl, crazy for me_…"

"_I met a boy, cute as can be_…"

Rose and the rest of the crowd watched and cheered them on, singing the ensemble "_tell me more_" bits. At the end, they roared their approval and the duo walked back over, grinning from ear to ear.

"That was awesome, guys!" Jont shouted over the noise,

"Thanks," Jack yelled back, "OK Rose, your turn now. Knock their socks off, honey!"

Rose smiled weakly, the butterflies in her stomach going full force. She downed the rest of her Malibu and coke before nervously going up onto the stage. She already knew which song she was going to sing and whispered it to the events organiser before taking her place.

"OK, and next we have Rose Tyler, singing another old Earth classic 'Day and Night'. Take it away, Rose!"

She cleared her throat and peered out at the sea of faces, her palms sweating. "This… this one's dedicated to my gorgeous boyfriend." She smiled before waiting for the right time to start singing. "_All of the day, all of the night, you do the things that make me feel so right. My shining star, my guiding light, and that's the day and night, babe_…"

Confidence oozed into her as the crowd starting cheering her on; her friends definitely being the loudest.

"_I just ain't the same when you're away; you are my inspiration. I'm hanging on to every word you say 'cos you are my motivation. You make me feel so right, every day and night_…"

Feeling braver, Rose grabbed the microphone and began to strut up and down the stage, swinging her hair back over her shoulders, generating fresh cheers from the crowd. She smiled at them, her eyes constantly raking over them to find one specific person but never seeing him. Never daunted, she began to sing the bridge, thoroughly enjoying herself.

"'_Cos the only time I think of you, is every day and all night through. Whenever I breathe, you're on my mind. Every day and night, babe_…"

As she launched into the chorus again, Rose reflected over just how true the lyrics were to her own relationship with the Doctor. She grinned. It was great.

By the end of the song, Rose was on cloud nine and she was grinning stupidly as she made her way back over to her friends, pushing her way through the cheering crowd.

"You were so fantastic, Rose!" said Jack, hugging her tightly,

"Thanks," she smiled, fanning herself, "I'm just gonna go outside for a minute to cool down,"

"OK, do you want me to come with you?" asked Jen,

"Nah, I'm fine. You stay here with Jack." Rose waved and began to fight her way over to the door, desperate for some cold air against her burning cheeks.

Once outside, she leaned against the wall, breathing deeply and wiping the sweat off her forehead. Doing karaoke had been so exhilarating but so terrifying at the same time; she could barely believe she'd done it.

Suddenly, a hand caught hers and dragged her further along the wall, into the shadows. Rose struggled for a moment before she realised who it was.

"It really is your day for getting me all hot and bothered," the Doctor purred into her ear,

"What can I say? It's an art," she said, with a smirk.

The Doctor slammed her against the wall, her hips wedged between his. "An art that you're getting incredibly good at," he whispered, before claiming her mouth for the next five minutes.

When they broke apart, Rose gasped out in between taking deep breaths of air, "It's an art that _you_ are pretty good at, as well,"

"_Just_ pretty good at?" asked the Doctor, raining kisses along her jaw and neck,

"A…amazingly good at!" Rose panted before moaning as he sucked on a particularly sensitive part of her neck. "Gods, Doctor, I want you so bad but we can't in case we get caught,"

"Not if we go to the TARDIS," he murmured against her skin,

"The TARDIS? I thought she was in storage,"

"We can still get to her. I've been going to visit her daily," the Doctor explained, drawing back from her and looking her in the eye, "Do you want to go there now?"

"Yes," Rose said simply, before the Doctor grinned and caught hold of her hand. The lovers carefully made their way through the grounds, keeping well in the shadows.

"Look!" Rose hissed, "How cute is that?"

The Doctor looked and smiled to see Jack and Jen sharing a kiss under the moonlight. "About time too," he said, "He's taken long enough!"

Rose giggled and let him pull her onwards to the TARDIS, where their much loved bed, big enough for two, awaited.

There was to be a lot of loving that night in the University of Mars.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	9. Part nine

**Degrees and the Doctor**

_**Woo, this is actually on-time (just!). Thanks for the reviews. I've only got four more days at college left and then FREEDOM! I'm planning on finishing this story by Christmas as well. 'K, nothing else to add so please enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

The Doctor woke up the next morning in a tangle of limbs to find Rose sleeping right on top of him. How she managed to stay on all night was beyond him. He carefully wrapped his arms around her and watched as she slowly woke up.

"Mmm, is it morning already?" she mumbled, sleepily,

"Yup, we've got a lecture to get to in about an hour," he told her, placing one hand on her cheek as she stared blearily down at him,

"OK," she said, "Good morning, by the way,"

"Morning," he replied, "C'mon let's go grab some breakfast from the kitchen. I can't be bothered to go to the canteen,"

"Me neither," Rose yawned, rolling off him and pulling on a large t-shirt, "C'mon lazy!"

"Who you calling lazy?" demanded the Doctor, jumping to his feet and pulling on his boxers before chasing after his giggling angel who had danced out of the room.

* * *

He finally caught up with her in the TARDIS kitchen where she was putting some bread in the toaster. He immediately pounced on her, tickling her ribs, making her squeal out loud and fight to get away.

"Doctor!" she moaned, twisting in his arms to face him,

"Yes?" he smiled at her,

"I love you," she whispered, snuggling against his bare chest,

"I love me too," he said.

Rose hit him and he laughed.

"Oh, toast's done!" he cried, grabbing it and pulling Rose down onto his lap on a chair, "C'mon, let's eat!"

* * *

"There you are, Rose! Where have you been?" cried Jen, as Rose sat down in the lecture theatre almost an hour later,

"Sorry, I woke up early and went out for a walk," Rose said, hastily, "I grabbed some breakfast on the way out,"

"Oh right," Jen replied, "Where did you go last night anyway? You just disappeared from the bar!"

"Erm… I bumped into the Doctor outside and we got chatting and then I felt tired so I decided to head to bed," she said, being half-truthful, "Besides, you looked pretty busy yourself!"

"What do you mean?" Jen asked, blushing silver,

"I saw you with Jack last night," Rose said, slyly,

"You don't mind, do you?" asked Jen, quietly, mindful of Kall who was sitting on her other side, chatting to Lavia,

"Nah," said Rose, "It's about time he dated someone. He's been single for too long."

Jen nodded. "He won't be single again for a long time if I can help it!"

Rose smiled and nodded before turning her attention to the front as the Doctor stood up to begin the lecture.

* * *

It was about forty five minutes later when the Doctor dropped the psychic paper onto Rose's lap. He was distributing sheets of paper out to the students and as he handed Rose some, for her and her friends, she felt something hit her leg, just above the knee. Quickly, she handed the paper across to Jen and then discovered the psychic paper lying innocently on her lap. Her heart beating faster, she opened it and read the words that scrawled instantly across it.

_I love me_

Rose rolled her eyes but then started as more words appeared.

_But I love you a trillion times more_

(_and I love me a lot!_)

She beamed, her heart swelling with her love for him.

"Uh Doctor, I think you've dropped your ID!" she said, as he passed her on the stairs, making his way back down to the front. He stopped and reached out for it, a warm and gentle smile on his face.

"Thanks Rose…" he began,

"Let's have a look!" Kall said, grabbing it off her and opening it before Rose knew what was going on,

"Ha!" he chortled, "I love your picture, Doctor!"

"Thanks Kall," he said, calmly, "Can I have…"

"Wait a minute! This says your species is Time Lord! How can you be a Time Lord?" asked Kall, turning confused eyes to the Doctor,

"They're just a myth!" shouted a student from the back,

"Even if they were real, they're all dead now," volunteered another student, "They were wiped out in the Time War!"

Rose glanced up at the Doctor, her heart constricting as she saw the pain in his eyes.

"What do you lot know?" she demanded, "If he say he's a Time Lord, then he's a Time Lord!"

"Says the girl who reckons it's possible for a planet to be in geostationary orbit around a black hole," snickered a third student.

The rest of the physics students burst out in laughter.

"Alright, break it up," said the Doctor, suddenly finding his voice, "Let's finish up for today. Now, can I have my ID back?"

Kall silently handed it to Rose who gave it to the Doctor. Their eyes connected briefly and she winced at the pain still in them. As she pulled her hand back, she swept her fingers over his and gave him a small smile. He smiled sadly back at her and the lecture continued.

* * *

"Well, that was an odd lecture," remarked Jen, a short while later once they were walking back up to their rooms,

"Yeah," nodded her three friends,

"Do you think he's really a Time Lord?" asked Kall, curiously.

Lavia and Jen shrugged while Rose suddenly checked through her shoulder bag.

"I think I might have left my pencil case back in the theatre," she said, "I'll go back and get it. Won't be long."

She was off before her friends had time to nod, walking swiftly down the corridor and then running as soon as she was out of their sight.

The lecture theatre door was still open when she got there and she paused for a moment, watching her Doctor. He was walking around his desk, tidying up his notes and preparing to leave. Suddenly, he stopped and placed his palms down on the table, his back to Rose. His head bent and his shoulders lifted and then sunk again as he sighed.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked him softly, placing her arms around his waist, having quickly crossed the room,

"Yeah," he sighed, pulling her around his body so he could hug her tightly. "It just hurts when people say that sort of stuff about my people. I know they don't really know any different as even before the Time War, my people didn't interfere with any other planet but… you know. It hurts."

Rose tightened her grip around his slim waist and kissed his neck reassuringly.

"Thanks Rose," the Doctor said, after a while,

"What for?" she questioned, lifting her face to look at him. She noted with satisfaction that almost all the pain had gone now.

"For sticking up for me earlier even thought you got ribbed for it,"

"What do they know?" Rose snorted, "We were there. We know it's possible."

The Doctor chuckled into her hair.

"Thanks for your note, by the way," she continued, "I was going to send one back,"

"What would it have said?" murmured the Doctor, closing his eyes and inhaling the fruity scent of her freshly shampooed hair,

"Hmm… it would have said… 'Dear Doctor, yes I know you love yourself a lot. I've lived with you for four years, remember?"

The Doctor laughed. "Four fantastic years," he whispered,

"Yep," Rose said, tilting her head back up again to look him in the eye, "No, my reply would be 'My Doctor, I love you so much it hurts when you're not by my side. I'll always be here for you to make the pain stay away. Forever yours, Rose.'"

"Oh Rose," he groaned, "What would I do without you? You're the only one that keeps me going sometimes,"

"You know that's not true," Rose said, softly, "What keeps you going is travelling to new places ad meeting new people. I'm just a part of that,"

"A very big part," the Doctor muttered,

"OK," Rose replied, with a smile, "I better go now. I told my friends I wouldn't be long. Are you gonna be alright?"

The Doctor nodded before dipping his head and kissing her.

"Good. You know where I am if you need me though,"

"I know," he said, with a loving smile, "Thank you, Rose,"

"You're welcome. I'll see you later," she grinned, kissing him again before giving him a final squeeze and walking towards the closed door. She turned around at the door and blew him a kiss before opening it and stepping out.

"Hi Rose."

Rose jumped. "God Kall, you scared me! What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd come and wait for you so you didn't need to walk back by yourself," Kall explained, falling into step with her,

"Oh thanks," said Rose, "But you didn't need to do that,"

"I wanted to," he said, simply.

There was a brief pause as Rose looked at her friend out of the corner of her eye. She was beginning to feel uneasy around him.

"So, do you really think the Doctor's a Time Lord?" Kall asked,

"Yes," she replied, instantly, "I believe him,"

"That's interesting. I think it would be awesome if he really was one. Seriously, a Time Lord in existence!" enthused Kall, unlocking his door and leading the way in. Rose followed him in without thinking. The friends often congregated in one of their rooms to chat.

"I don't get what all the hype is about," she confessed, sitting on the end of the bed and crossing her legs,

"You wouldn't, being human," Kall said, "Rose, just imagine that there's some people or a person that you've grown up hearing amazing stories about and suddenly you find out that they're real,"

"Like Santa?"

"Who?"

"Never mind; Earth tradition," Rose explained, "What kind of stories are there?"

"That one man appears on planets randomly and fights the baddies, protects the good and always saves the day at the last minute!" said Kall, enthusiastically,

"Sounds like a proper action man," Rose commented,

"Do you reckon that's the Doctor, Rose?" her friend asked, standing in front of her and staring down at her,

"How should I know?" she asked, slowly.

Kall bent down so they were face to face and when he spoke, it was in a calm and serious voice, "Because, Rose Tyler, you know the Doctor extremely well, do you not? You are his girlfriend, his lover, after all."

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	10. Part ten

**Degrees and the Doctor**

_**Thanks for the reviews! I'm on holiday now so hopefully updates will be a lot faster- especially as I want to finish this story on Christmas Eve and this gives me, what, a week? Hope you enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

"Hey Jack, wait up!"

The ex-Time Agent stopped in his tracks and swung around to greet the Doctor. After exchanging the usual pleasantries, the Doctor decided to ask the question that had been burning at him all morning.

"So, did you have a good night?"

Jack raised an eyebrow at the cheeky expression on his friend's face. "Yeah, went to the bar with Jont, met up with Rose…"

"…and Jen," the Doctor interrupted,

"Alright," Jack grinned, "What do you know?"

The Doctor smirked. "Let's just say me and Rose are very happy for you both. We both think it's really cute,"

"Do I want to know what you two were doing when you saw me and Jen?" Jack asked,

"Probably the same as you two were going to do,"

"Did you go to the TARDIS?"

"Of course. Where did you go?" asked the Doctor, curiously,

"We didn't," Jack stated clearly, "We just chatted and kissed until we went to our own separate beds,"

"You mean the amazing Captain Jack Harkness _didn't_ have a one-night stand?" teased the Doctor, "You've changed."

Jack frowned, a retort ready on his tongue before he was interrupted by a simultaneous beeping coming from both of their wrists. They froze, looking worriedly at one another.

"Rose!"

The Doctor quickly activated his locator and studied the hologram intently. "She's in a room two doors down from her own," he reported, "C'mon!"

They both set off running as fast as possible, hoping that Rose was OK and safe.

* * *

Rose stared nervously at Kall.

"What do you mean?" she asked, slowly,

"Oh, come on, Rose!" Kall exploded, "Stop trying to hide it! I've known for a couple of days since that lecture on Monday!"

"How?" she whispered,

"I was watching you through the lecture theatre door after the Doctor asked you to wait behind," Kall admitted, "I saw you kiss him, Rose!"

Rose sat there, her heart thudding as she fought not to panic. Her hand quickly slipped down to her watch and pressed the alert button. She knew she needed help and fast.

"Why didn't you say something?" she questioned calmly, "Why wait until now?"

"I wanted to check I hadn't imagined it," Kall said, starting to pace, "I kept a watch out all through Tuesday but you rarely came out of your room. But I knew I was right yesterday in the tutorial." He stopped pacing and turned to stare at Rose. "You really need to learn to be more subtle. I don't _want_ to know what you were doing under the table, especially from the Doctor's reactions, but come _on_, I wouldn't be surprised if Lavia, Jen and some of the other students have cottoned on."

Rose paled.

"And then the last straw came this morning when you stuck up for the Doctor and looked at him in a more than sympathetic way. And then when you went back afterwards, claiming you'd forgotten your pencil case! Rose, you don't _have_ a pencil case!"

She blushed. She'd been hoping her friends wouldn't pick up on that minor detail.

"So, what are you going to do?" she asked, quietly, "Are you going to squeal on us?"

Kall looked at her, about to answer, when the door suddenly crashed open, the Doctor appearing in the frame. His eyes took in the scene before he strode in.

"Rose?" he asked,

"He knows," she replied, "About us,"

"OK," the Doctor said, kicking the door closed behind him. He walked over to the pair and extended his hand to Rose. She immediately took it and was pulled to her feet and into his chest, where his arm draped securely around her waist. "Are you OK?" he checked.

She nodded. "I just thought you'd better be here as I wasn't sure where it was going,"

"It was the right decision," he nodded before looking at Kall, who was watching them intently. "When you said he knows about us, how much does that mean? Everything or just our relationship?"

"Just our relationship," Rose clarified,

"But I would like to know everything," Kall suddenly said, "Such as, who exactly are you and what are you doing here?"

"Why don't you believe that we really are who we say we are; a lecturer and a student who just happen to be in a relationship?" asked the Doctor, linking his fingers with Roses', as they both stared at Kall,

"You don't act like them," said Kall, "Plus, I reckon that Jack person is involved with you somehow. He's always hanging around."

The Doctor laughed. "You're very observant, Kall. So tell me, why does it bother you so much that we might not be who we say we are?"

While he waited for Kall to answer, he sat down on the bed; Rose crawled to sit between his legs and leant back against his chest.

"I need to know who everyone around us is," Kall said, finally,

"Us?" asked Rose,

"Me and…" Kall sighed, "Me and Lavia. I need to protect her,"

"Who from?" said the Doctor.

Kall sighed again. "I can't tell you,"

"Is it to protect her from the possible abduction plot?" asked the Doctor.

The young man looked up in shock, "How do you know about that?" he demanded, "You're not the kidnappers, are you?"

"Of course not," the Doctor snorted. He stood up and walked over to Kall. "We need to tell each other the truth about what's going on."

Kall nodded silently before a sudden knocking at the door aroused their attention.

"Kall?" asked Lavia, walking in,

"My lady," Kall said, acknowledging his head,

"Oh," she said, seeing Rose and the Doctor, "What's going on?"

"I was just discussing something with them," Kall explained.

The Doctor and Rose watched in interest as he took Lavia's hand and kissed the back of it.

Suddenly a lot of things made sense to Rose- and a few things didn't.

"Are you two in a relationship?" she asked bluntly.

They glanced at one another before Kall nodded.

"We have an arranged marriage," he said, "Before we were even born, Lavia's parents made an arrangement with my parents that their firstborn would marry my parent's firstborn of the opposite gender. And that's us."

Lavia nodded, grasping his hand with hers.

"But, you two never seemed to get on, especially in the first couple of days here!" exclaimed Rose.

Lavia and Kall laughed.

"We didn't," Lavia explained, "We were told we had an arranged marriage only a few months ago and by that time, we'd had time to decide we didn't like each other. We were outraged when we were told we had to come here together,"

"Yeah," Kall continued, "So as you saw, we constantly bickered and fought with one another. But that all changed exactly one week ago. Rose, do you remember walking in on fighting last Thursday evening?"

She nodded, leaning against the Doctor who had returned to sit on the bed.

"After you'd disappeared off and Jen had gone to find you, I returned up here and I found Lavia in tears. She was scared about the possible abduction plot against her and she didn't think there was anyone here to protect her,"

"Wait, you _knew_ about the plot?" said the Doctor,

"Yeah, I overheard Mummy and Daddy talking about it with some other people back on Piripi," said Lavia, "I wish they'd just told me."

Kall squeezed her hand. "Yeah, so anyway, I asked her what was wrong and after quite a bit of persuading, she told me her fears so then I told her that that was what I was there for,"

"So, the only reason you're here is to protect Lavia?" Rose assumed,

"Yeah, and also because our parents thought it would be a good idea to have to live together before we get married," grinned Kall, "And it seems to have worked. We've talked over our problems and we're giving it a go. Lavia's actually a nice person once you get past all the snootiness,"

"Oi," Lavia laughed as she shoved her fiancé, "You know it's all an act." She turned to Rose. "Sorry if I've appeared rude but it's how I've got to be,"

"It's OK," she reassured, "I understand. Gods, you two. I'm actually impressed. You're a lot more subtle than us!"

"Oh, so you mean you two _are_ an item?" said Lavia, not sounding in the least surprised, "I'd thought you probably were, what with the under the table stuff yesterday and the hanging back after the lectures to talk to the Doctor excuse."

Rose and the Doctor blushed.

"So don't you want to know exactly who _we_ are after revealing all your secrets?" asked the Doctor.

Kall straightened up. "Please tell us. Why _are_ you here?"

"I got a message a few weeks ago from the Principal of this university," the Doctor explained, "We came to see him and he enlisted mine, Rose's and our friend Jack's help in protecting you, Lavia,"

"You mean you're not actually a lecturer at all?" said Lavia,

"Nope," said the Doctor, "Neither is Rose really a student or Jack a janitor. We're all undercover. It's been fun really,"

"So you're not working against us?" Kall checked.

Rose shook her head. "We're with you all the way. We promised to watch out for Lavia and we're gonna do it." The Doctor nodded in agreement.

"We should join forces," he recommended, "That way, you'll always be safe, Lavia."

She nodded as Kall spoke. "But why didn't someone _tell_ us. I've been wasting time suspecting you two when it's someone else,"

"That's a good point," said the Doctor, "We did have suspicions about you as well."

Kall sighed. "OK, let's pool our ideas, if you've got any. Maybe you've seen something I haven't and then we might be able to sort this out soon."

The other nodded and they set to work. It had been a surprising and informative afternoon.

* * *

Much later, the Doctor and Rose snuck down the corridor and into Rose's room. They collapsed onto the bed together after securely locking the door.

"What a day!" Rose sighed, cuddling into his side, "Seems so long since this morning when we woke up on the TARDIS,"

"Mmm," the Doctor murmured, playing with her hair, "It's weird how Philip didn't tell us that Kall was also guarding Lavia,"

"Maybe he doesn't know," Rose suggested, unsuccessfully trying to cover a yawn, "I'm tired,"

"I'm not surprised. We didn't get much sleep last night," the Doctor said, with a wink.

Rose grinned before a thought struck her. "How come Jack didn't come? I thought the panic button alerted both of you,"

"He did but we decided he should wait outside and only come in if I activated the button again. A sort of back up plan, you know. Guess he probably bumped into Jen and then got distracted,"

"I'm glad he's found someone," Rose smiled, "I always felt bad that we had each other and he had no-one,"

"Yeah," her lover agreed, "C'mon you, let's get you into bed. You're falling asleep,"

"In your arms, s'good," she mumbled, before standing up and changing, "Are you staying?"

"Do you know, I haven't slept in my own bed since Monday night?" the Doctor stated,

"Alien slutboi," Rose teased, pulling his arms around her, "Is that a yes then?"

The Doctor held tightly onto her and tipped them onto the bed; Rose squealing as he landed on top of her. He framed her face with his hands and kissed her deeply before drawing back a few inches and staring into her eyes.

"For you, anything."

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	11. Part eleven

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for the reviews! Seriously long chapter ahead… well not as long as some I've seen which take over half an hour to read a single chapter! Couple of swear words to watch out for as well. Hope you enjoy, anyway, and remember, killing the author means you won't get the rest of the fic..!_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

Rose slipped into the row of seats in the lecture theatre where they normally sat, first, the following morning, so she could lean against the wall. Kall followed her and then Lavia and Jen.

"D'ya think we should tell Jen?" Kall whispered into her ear, "If we're all involved, then it might be for her own safety,"

"I dunno," replied Rose, "Let's wait and see. We'll tell her if we really have to."

Kall nodded and turned to speak to the other girls. Rose meanwhile, sighed and looked around the room. The Doctor wasn't there yet- she had left him in her room when she went to meet her friends for breakfast- so most of the students were sitting around chatting. She was hoping that it was her imagination but quite a lot of them seemed to be whispering and sneaking glances at her. It was rather unsettling.

Suddenly, the Doctor strode in and there was a hush. He looked around at the students, automatically searching out Rose, before he grinned and began speaking.

Someone suddenly poked Rose in the back. She turned around and looked questioningly at the two female aliens behind her. Rose didn't know what their species was called but they were dressed in black cloaks and there seemed to be a beak protruding from the depths of the hood.

"Hey you. Is it true that you're sleeping with the Doctor?" one of them whispered,

"What? Where did you hear that?" Rose asked, in shock.

The other alien shrugged. "There's a rumour going around,"

"So, are you?" repeated the first one,

"No!" Rose denied,

"Oh, 'cause you seem to behave in a very flirtatious way towards him," smirked the second girl,

"Pay attention up there!" the Doctor shouted.

Rose jumped and turned around, a worried expression on her face, which the Doctor noticed immediately.

Five minutes later, when the students were independently doing some research on a very difficult topic on the inbuilt computers in front of them, an email pinged silently into Rose's inbox. She quickly opened it.

_Are you OK? I saw your face. D x_

Rose sighed and snuck a look at him but he was busy helping a student on the front row. She pressed reply and typed in a message.

_The aliens behind me were asking if the rumour that I'm sleeping with you is true_

She pressed send and carried on with her work, keeping half an eye out, waiting until the Doctor returned to his desk. Suddenly, a whispered conversation behind her caught her attention.

"She's denying it,"

"Did she say that?"

"Yes. I bet she's lying,"

"Tan said she was doing something under the table on Wednesday in their tutorial that was getting the Doctor all flustered,"

"She's probably sleeping with him to get good marks. She is a bit dumb,"

"Yeah, what a slag!"

"Exactly."

Hot tears burnt at the back of Rose's eyelids.

"Don't listen to them," Kall whispered, patting her hand.

She nodded and quickly opened a new email.

_They're gonna find out. I can't take this anymore!_

The Doctor's response was immediate.

_It'll be alright, my darling. Just hold on in there_

Rose took a deep breath, composing herself.

"_Slag_!"

The hissed word from somewhere behind her was the last straw. She quickly and quietly logged off the computer before gracefully standing up and edging past her friends. She ignored their questions of where she was going and walked down the stairs towards the Doctor.

All the students stopped working and watched in fascination as she came to a halt in front of the Doctor and spoke a few inaudible words to him. He nodded at her and she quickly walked out of the door, her head held high.

Once outside the theatre, however, Rose lost the battle and let the tears fall. Not wanting to be found crying in a corridor, she began to stumble back to her room, praying that she didn't bump into anyone.

"Rose?" suddenly asked a voice.

She looked up to find Jack standing in front of her.

"Rose, honey, you're crying. What's up?" he asked, pulling her into a hug,

"They…they…" she choked, trying to swallow the lump in her throat,

"C'mon, petal," her brother whispered, realising that she was really upset, "Let's go to my room and we can talk in private."

Rose nodded and let herself be pulled along numerous corridors to where she knew Jack slept. She had never been inside before and momentarily forgot her troubles as she gazed around. It definitely wasn't as luxurious as hers, or even the Doctors', but inside the door, it was like a mini apartment with a small sitting room and three more doors leading off.

"Howdy," said Jont, peering out from behind one of the doors.

Rose suddenly remembered that Jack shared his rooms with the alien from Piripi.

"Hey," Jack replied, "I'm just gonna have a chat with Rose in my room,"

"Sure thing. I was just getting a beer; do you two want one?"

Rose managed a quiet "yes, please," which was quickly echoed by Jack before she was guided through one of the doors and into Jack's bedroom.

"Right then, honey. What's made you so upset?" he asked, once they were settled on his bed; Rose leaning against him,

"The rest of the Physics students… they've almost found out about me an' the Doctor," Rose haltingly explained, "There's… there's a rumour going around that I'm s…s…sleeping with him."

Jack gently stroked her hair. "Do you know what fuelled it?"

Rose nodded. "I was so s…stupid!" she cried, "On Wednesday during our tutorial, I was sat next to the Doctor an' I was b…bored so I started messing around by t…touching his thighs an' stuff, which made him all f…flustered an' the other s…students got s…suspicious an' told everybody so now they all think I'm a s…slag!" She began to cry audibly, tucking her face into Jack's jacket. He put his arms around her.

"Jack?" said Jont, carefully opening the door and placing two beers on the bedside table, "I'm going out. I received a message for both of us but I can handle it,"

"Cheers, Jont," said Jack, cradling Rose, "I'll make it up to you,"

"It's no problem," he replied, before leaving Jack and Rose alone.

"Rose, where's the Doctor?" he asked, taking a swig of his beer after she'd calmed down a bit,

"Still giving the lecture," Rose mumbled, "I left part way through which will probably make them even more certain that the rumours are true. God, I'm such an idiot but I couldn't take it in there any longer!"

"It'll be alright," Jack soothed, desperately trying to calm the crying girl in his arms, "Never fear, Captain Jack's here!"

Rose gave a muffled giggle against his chest before closing her eyes. Jack continued stroking her hair and holding her tight, even after she had fallen asleep, worn out through worrying.

* * *

Some time later, Jack heard a knock at the exterior door. He carefully moved Rose's head off his chest and went to answer it.

"Jack, have you seen Rose? I can't find her,"

"She's asleep in my room," he nodded, letting the Doctor in,

"Is she OK?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "When I found her, she was crying her eyes out. She said something about people knowing about you two 'cause of a rumour."

The Doctor sighed. "We weren't being as subtle as we tried to be. We were found out by Kall yesterday, and a result Lavia knows too,"

"_What_?" Jack gasped,

"We've had some developments as well; namely that Kall is also protecting Lavia and is also her fiancé," continued the Doctor, "And this new knowledge opens up a whole new tub of ball bearings,"

"You and your ball bearings," muttered a sleepy voice.

The Doctor and Jack looked up to see Rose standing at the bedroom door.

"Are you alright, angel?" asked the Doctor, softly.

Rose's face suddenly crumpled and the Doctor ran over to her, scooping her up in his arms.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she kept repeating,

"What for, Rose?"

"For giving us away by acting so stupid an' now everything's gonna go wrong an' it'll all be my fault!" she wailed, fresh tears rolling down her face.

The Doctor gently ran a finger down her cheek, wiping away her tears and held her close. "It's not your fault, my love. If it's anyone's, it's mine," he said, "I shouldn't have encouraged you. But, c'mon, you can't say it wasn't worth it!" He gave a grin, which Rose returned half heartedly. "Anyway, the students don't know that the rumour is true and if we behave right, they'll have no reason to believe it."

Rose sniffed and wiped her eyes, hating herself for crying for the second time that week. "Does that mean I can't see you outside lectures?"

"No! No, it means we can't act towards each other in more than a student- lecturer way in public,"

"But we can in private?"

The Doctor grinned and nodded; proud of how quick she'd caught on. "We are going to spend this weekend locked up in the TARDIS together, coming out only occasionally for appearances sake," he told her, "Oh, and we've got to go and speak to Philip to ask him about Kall,"

"What about Kall?" asked Jack.

The Doctor looked over at him. "I told you before that we had some developments yesterday, mainly centring around Kall and Lavia." He sat down on a chair, with Rose curled up on his lap listening to his heartbeats, before beginning to tell their friend everything they had found out the day before. Jack listened silently, his brain adding the new knowledge to what he already knew.

"OK," he said, once the Doctor had finished, "So, we have Kall claiming he's not only protecting Lavia like we're supposed to be but he's also engaged to her. And you two found this all out yesterday, at the same time having to tell Kall and Lavia exactly who we are and what we're doing here and now you're suspicious of Philip because he didn't tell us about Kall and Kall about us?"

"That's about it, yeah," said the Doctor.

Jack whistled. "Definitely go and interrogate Philip tomorrow. There's something weird going on there." He paused. "And I'm not too sure about Kall. Something seems odd about that situation; I can't put my finger on it,"

"Oh, no way!" Rose said, vehemently, "Kall's innocent! I'd know if he wasn't,"

"But Rose," said Jack, hating to bring it up, "What about Zoë?"

She fell silent, a frown on her face.

"Let's discuss this again tomorrow after we've hopefully got some answers from Philip," the Doctor suggested, "Shall we meet you on the TARDIS after lunch?"

Jack nodded and swore as his radio beeped. "I've got to go and fix something,"

"Alright," the Doctor nodded, "C'mon Rose, do you want to go to the TARDIS now?"

She nodded, standing up and giving Jack a thankful hug as the Doctor went on ahead. She followed soon after and was shortly opening the TARDIS door, feeling the welcoming hum vibrate beneath her feet.

"Doctor?" she called,

"I'm coming," he shouted, appearing suddenly in the control room. He had abandoned his jacket and tie somewhere and was standing comfortably in just his shirt and trousers. He pulled her down onto the captain's chair and took her into his reassuring arms.

"Rose, what was making you cry earlier?" he asked once they were settled, "I know you. Some bitchy girls calling you names wouldn't do that. You'd stand up and call them worse."

Rose smiled and inhaled his familiar scent before answering. "They said I was just sleeping with you to get good marks, when that isn't true,"

"It definitely isn't," her lover remarked, "You get lousy marks."

Rose shoved his shoulder indignantly, making him laugh which she soon joined in.

"So what was it?" the Doctor asked, tilting his head so he could see her eyes.

Rose shrugged. "I dunno… I guess I'm just getting stressed and confused about this whole thing as we don't know who the culprit is, so I can only trust you and Jack, and that's kind of making me… _scared_ if you know what I mean…"

"I do," he said, solemnly, "It's OK to feel scared, Rose, but you don't need to worry. We're a step closer to finding out who it is." He framed her face with his hands, staring into her eyes. "Promise me you won't worry too much?"

"I promise," she replied, "I'm fed up of crying anyway,"

"Even though every time you cry, you get to be cheered up by yours truly?" asked the Doctor, with a teasing smile.

Rose smiled back. "You're really good at it. I always feel better whenever I'm in your arms,"

"Yeah, Jack said that too,"

"Oi!"

The Doctor's laughter was cut off by Rose firmly planting her lips on his. She grinned into the kiss as she had a sudden thought.

_If only those bitchy girls could see us now!_

* * *

The two lovers spent the weekend doing as the Doctor had described. Rose met up with her friends and spent time with them, trying to enjoy herself and ignore the whispers of her fellow Physics students. Kall and Lavia told her to ignore it and Jen, who didn't have any idea that the rumour was in fact true, thought those who believed in it were making a mountain out of a molehill and said as much to those they met. Rose found it very refreshing that her friend, who spent a lot of time with her, didn't suspect anything other than a friendship with their lecturer. Of course, it might have just been because Jen was too infatuated with Jack to notice anything else. All the same, Rose kept a low profile over the weekend, even going to Philip's office separately from the Doctor on the Sunday afternoon. They had previously planned to go on the Saturday, but the Principal had been away from the University of Mars for the entire day.

* * *

"Doctor, Miss. Tyler, please have a seat," Philip said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk, "What can I do for you today?"

"We'd like to ask you a question," said the Doctor, settling in a chair and taking Rose's hand from where she was sitting next to him. "Namely, did you know that Kall is also guarding Lavia and if you do know this, why didn't you tell us?"

They watched Philip's face carefully. It went from interested to puzzled and then completely neutral.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," he answered delicately, "I can't imagine why Lord and Lady Labeaut didn't tell me,"

"Ah, well," said the Doctor, "Probably slipped their mind,"

"Indeed," Philip replied, "Erm, how exactly did you find this out?"

"Kall told us," the Doctor said airily, "Thank you for your time anyway. We must be going,"

"Oh. Oh, of course!" said Philip, standing up and seeing them out, "Please call again if you have any more questions." He closed the door behind them.

"Oh, don't worry, we will," muttered the Time Lord dangerously, sweeping Rose down the corridor.

Once they were out of sight, he turned to her to see her looking at him curiously.

"Guilty?" she asked,

"I think we have good reason to think so," he replied, "Can you go and get Jack and bring him to the TARDIS? We need to talk."

Rose nodded, smiled at him and jogged off in the direction of Jack's rooms. She had a feeling it could be a long afternoon.

* * *

"Oh, hi Jont. Is Jack in?" she asked, a couple of minutes later,

"Maybe," Jont grinned, "You want to come in and look?"

"Jont, please. I need to talk to him," she said, "It's important,"

"OK, OK," he said, "Yo, _Jack_!"

"What's up?" came a familiar voice as Jack came into view. "Oh, hey Rose. Do you need me?"

She nodded, glancing at Jont who was watching them in interest.

"Alright. Jont, I'm going out for a bit. See you later,"

"Later," replied the Piripian. He watched his fellow janitor and his blonde friend hurry down the corridor, talking in low voices. Jont took out his communicator and raised it to his lips.

"Sir, we have a situation."

* * *

Rose had a headache.

She groaned softly and put her hands over her eyes from where she was lying on the carpeted floor in the TARDIS library. The Doctor and Jack were debating their findings, with the Doctor occasionally picking up a book from the numerous shelves surrounding them and referring to it.

"OK, so to recap, we have two possible suspects- Kall and Philip," said Jack, tiredly, "Kall, because I have a gut feeling and they tend to prove right and Philip because he acted oddly when you were questioning him earlier?"

The Doctor nodded his affirmation.

"Right and it's also possible that they could be working in cahoots as well. So, what do we do?" asked Jack, flopping onto an armchair,

"Investigate them. We're on our own now as our only contact is now a suspect," said the Doctor. He looked in concern at the motionless girl lying on the rug. "Rose, are you alright?"

"Got a headache," she mumbled, "Actually, got a whole body ache."

Her lover looked at her sympathetically before kneeling down behind her head. "Sit up," he instructed. She did so and shuffled back to lean against his chest. He then began to massage her shoulders and neck, working out the knots. Rose moaned her appreciation and relaxed entirely against him.

"Let's leave it there for tonight and sleep on it," he suggested, "Jack, are you staying here or going back to your room?"

The captain took a moment to think. "Better go back to my room, I guess. See you both tomorrow,"

"Bye Jack," his two best friends said, watching as he strode from the room.

Neither of them knew it might be the last time they ever saw him.

* * *

When Rose thought back to the following Monday morning years later, the events leading up to the lecture were a blur of chatting, laughing and ignoring bitchy aliens. The lecture itself, however, became engrained clearly in her memory forever.

"Atoms contain three sub-atomic particles called…what? You," asked the Doctor, pointing at a student,

"Protons, neutrons and electrons," they replied,

"Correct. Electrons are found where…Rose?"

"Well, of _course_, he's going to pick her!"

Rose ignored the whisper behind her and confidently gave her answer. "In energy shells around the nucleus,"

"Fantastic, well done. Erm… Lavia, where are protons and…"

Suddenly, he was cut off by a synchronised beeping coming from both his and Rose's watches. Their eyes met, both of them wide and fearful.

Jack was in trouble.

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	12. Part twelve

**Degrees and the Doctor**

_**Thanks for the reviews! Special thanks to hubert24601 who helped me with this chapter as it was incredibly hard to write! Hope you enjoy. There's either one or two chapters left in this story… and two days to do it in!**_

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

The Doctor and Rose immediately sprang into action after hearing the ominous beeping of their watches.

"Kall, Lavia, come with me. We need to get you to a safe place," instructed Rose, turning to her friends, "The beeping means that Jack's found something or needs help so we need to go,"

"_What_?" Jen cried, overhearing the conversation, "Why does he need help?"

"Because some aliens may have taken him hostage or something! It may be a false alarm but we really need to go," Rose explained impatiently, "C'mon, guys,"

"I'm coming with you," said Jen, firmly, "I want to know _exactly_ what's going on, especially if my boyfriend is involved!"

Rose groaned mentally. When had Jen become so bossy? She supposed it was because Jack was involved. She knew that she'd move heaven and hell to get to the Doctor if he ever was in trouble.

"Alright, come with us but _please_ hurry!"

She and Jen ran down the stairs in order to join Kall and Lavia who had congregated by the door.

"Rose," said the Doctor, seriously, catching her hand as she reached him. He had activated his hologram and had been studying it, intently. "Take them to the TARDIS, lock them in and then join me at Jack's room. That's where he is and then we can find out what's going on, OK?"

She nodded, determination overriding the fear in her eyes.

The Doctor reached out and caressed her cheek gently. "Take care, angel. We don't know who's on our side, remember that,"

"I will," she promised, "You be careful as well." She grinned at him, the adrenaline that she always got during an adventure pumping through her veins, before rejoining her friends and urging them on. They had to get to the TARDIS quickly.

* * *

They made the journey right across the university campus in record time. Along the way, Rose had briefly observed her friends. Jen was looking confused, Kall was worried but determined and Lavia looked scared. She was firmly holding onto the hand of her fiancé.

"This place is incredible," said Kall, once they had entered the TARDIS, "How's the inside bigger than the outside?"

"Time Lord trick," Rose briefly explained, her hand on the wall, asking the TARDIS to provide a suitable room. She'd never done it before but hoped it would work for her in this emergency.

"You mean Time Lords _are_ real?" gasped Jen,

"Yeah. The Doctor is a Time Lord, just as I said. This is his time ship," answered Rose, smiling happily as a door appeared on the other side of the control room, "C'mon, I'll leave you in here."

She led the way inside and glanced around. The room was similar to a lounge with seats and methods of entertainment but it also contained a door which Rose assumed led to a bathroom, and a kitchen to get snacks from. It was the perfect place to have to wait in.

"What do you mean 'leave us in here'?" asked Jen, slowly,

"I've got to go and help the Doctor and Jack," Rose replied, "And it's safest for Lavia to stay in here. No-one, bar me, Jack and the Doctor can get in unless invited,"

"Am I missing something here?" Jen said, "Why do _you_ need to help the Doctor? And why's it safer for Lavia to stay in here?"

Rose sighed and glanced over to Kall and Lavia, who both nodded. It appeared that it was time for them to lay out all their cards.

"There's something about me that you should know," she began, "I'm not actually a student here at all; I'm working undercover along with the Doctor and Jack."

Jen inhaled sharply. "What do you mean?"

"Look Jen, I don't have a lot of time so I'll just give you the basics but I _promise_ that I'll explain in more detail later, OK?"

Her friend nodded.

"I travel with the Doctor and Jack around the universe and we got a message from the Principal of this university a few weeks ago. He asked us to come and work undercover because Lavia needed protecting as she's in the centre of an abduction plot. Now, it's possible that Jack's found out who the abductors are and needs help so I _really_ need to go and help him…" She stopped and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm sorry for deceiving you but I had to…" She broke off again and glanced at her watch. Ten minutes had passed since they'd left the lecture theatre. "I need to go now but you'll be safe in here as long as you don't leave. I'll be back as soon as I can; just _don't_leave, OK?"

Her three friends nodded, all of them pale in their own way. She nodded back, hoping that Kall and Lavia would explain more of their situation to Jen, and then turned on her heel and ran out of the TARDIS, brushing the console with her hand as she passed.

"Keep them safe, girl."

* * *

The Doctor cursed under his breath. He cursed himself, he cursed the alien standing in front of him with a sneer on his face and he cursed the day he'd received the plea for help from the University of Mars.

He turned to his right to see Jack sitting on a chair, looking a little out of it. He'd only just woken up from the drug induced sleep he'd been forced into.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked,

"Yeah," he mumbled back, stretching slightly, "Sorry,"

"Not your fault," replied the Time Lord, honestly knowing that it wasn't.

After Rose and her friends had left the lecture theatre, he had quickly dismissed the students, ignoring the questions of what was going on and the snide remarks that he really _must_ be sleeping with that blonde slag (his insides seethed with rage) because he had taken her hand and stroked her cheek in public, before running to where Jack's quarters were. Once there, he had opted for stealth mode and quietly opened the door to find Jack fast asleep in an armchair.

"_Jack," he whispered, going up to his friend and shaking his shoulder, "Wake up!"_

_The ex-Time Agent grunted in his sleep and moved his head slightly but didn't wake up._

_OK, time to try another tactic…_

"_Jack. Jen's here and she's dying for a kiss…"_

"_Wha'?" mumbled Jack, sleepily opening his eyes, "Doctor, what's up?"_

"_You pressed your panic button," the Doctor nudged._

_Suddenly Jack's eyes went wide. "Someone drugged me!" he exclaimed, "It must have been in my breakfast or somethin'. I suddenly felt all tired and recognised the symptoms so I pressed the button before I fainted."_

_The Doctor frowned. "Who would have drugged you?"_

"_That would have been me," said a voice._

Now, the Doctor glared at the person who had uttered those words- and who had also confiscated his sonic screwdriver, Jack's sonic blaster and locked the door so no-one could get in or out.

"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, "I thought you called us here to help you."

The Principal of the University of Mars, Philip Hilton smirked at him. "I have my reasons," he replied,

"Which are?"

"You're getting in the way of the plot to abduct little Lady Lavia Labeaut," he paused and smiled, "All L's- isn't that cute?"

"Not really," Jack snorted. Philip ignored him.

"You called us here to help _protect_ Lavia from the plot," the Doctor stated, "Why do that if you're part of the faction who want to abduct her? It doesn't make any sense!" he ended in a frustrated shout,

"I have my reasons," Philip repeated, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend do. Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back!"

He sneered at the time travellers, spun around and stalked out of the door, locking it firmly behind him.

Jack stood up and kicked the chair in anger.

"Damn it!" he hissed, "Why didn't we see this coming? It should have been obvious after the interview with him yesterday."

The Doctor shrugged; his hands deep in his trouser pockets. "Hope Rose is OK,"

"Where is she?"

"She's taken Kall, Lavia and, for some reason, Jen, to the TARDIS to make sure Lavia is safe. I told her to come back here once she'd done that," he explained,

"She'll be fine," Jack said, "C'mon, let's think. How are we gonna get out of here?"

* * *

Rose jogged quietly down a corridor on her way to Jack's room. Her head was beginning to hurt from all the thoughts that were whizzing around it; predominantly was Jack alright and what was going on?

She turned a corner and stopped suddenly. There, in front of her with his ear pressed up against the door leading to Jack's quarters, was Jont.

Rose tiptoed forward, her face set in a frown, until she was right behind him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Jont jumped and spun around. "Shh!" he whispered, "What are you doing here?"

"Seeing Jack," Rose said carefully, beginning to become a little suspicious of the janitor, "Why are you listening outside the door? Oh my God, you're one of the abductors aren't you? And you've got Jack! Let him go!"

Jont looked confused for a second. "I haven't got Jack. Why would I have him?"

"I don't know!" Rose hissed, "You abductors would probably do anything to get your hands on Lavia! God, Jont, I never would have believed it of you! Are you working with Philip then? Trying to get your hands on Lavia? Well, I won't let you!"

Jont stood up and faced her. "I am _not_ trying to abduct Lavia!" he stated firmly, "I am trying to _protect_ her! But what's your role in all this, Rose? How do you know so much about the plot?"

Rose stared at him, desperately trying to work out if she could trust him. "What?" she finally mumbled.

Jont sighed and rummaged in his pocket. Rose tensed for a moment before relaxing as he pulled out a small card.

"Agent Jont Tallahan at your service," he said, smoothly, brandishing an ID card.

Rose took it with trembling fingers, checking that it wasn't psychic paper as the Doctor had taught her… Oh God, the Doctor! Where was he?

"Have you seen the Doctor?"

"He's in there with Jack and Philip," Jont said, folding his arms, "So go on, tell me what your role is in this plot? I've been suspicious of you and your friends for quite a while but I've checked your records at the university and they don't say anything."

Rose swallowed and glanced again at Jont's ID card. It looked real enough. Could she trust him?

"Do you promise that you're protecting Lavia and not conspiring against her?" she asked.

Jont nodded. "Hand on my heart; I swear I'm working for her. Her father, Lord Labeaut, sent me here last year, a year before Lavia's arrival at the university, in order to establish some protection for her that wasn't as obvious as arriving with her. That's Kall's job,"

"And mine and the Doctor and Jack's," Rose inputted quietly.

Jont's mouth opened.

"We got a message from Philip to come and protect Lavia by working undercover," Rose briefly explained, "But what I don't get is why he asked us to help if he's involved. Which he must be if he's got the Doctor and Jack in there…" She trailed off, her eyes wide.

"Rose, I think we need to work together," Jont said, "We need to find out what's going on."

Rose nodded. "Where do we start then?"

Jont thought. "Well, Philip is still in there so we can't rescue the Doctor and Jack right now… Is Lavia somewhere safe? She's our main priority,"

"She's in the TARDIS- which is our spaceship- with Kall and I told them to stay there. No-one can get in, don't worry."

Jont's shoulder's visibly sagged with relief. "Good, well, c'mon, I think we should start by searching Philip's office and we might find something useful out. Let's go!"

* * *

"Be as quick as you can, Rose," Jont whispered, approximately two minutes later after they had arrived at the Principal's office, "We don't know how much time we've got and be careful not to make a mess!"

Rose nodded and crept inside the door, leaving her accomplice outside, keeping guard. She wasn't entirely sure how much she could trust him, even if he did have a fancy card. She decided to just go along with it and hope that he was trustworthy. She didn't really have much of a choice as the Doctor and Jack were both trapped and her friends had to stay in the TARDIS for their own safety.

Rose scanned the room briefly. There was Philip's large desk in the centre of the room, with papers scattered all over the surface and in one corner of the room, there was what looked like two large filing cabinets. She decided that the desk looked most promising and quickly began to rifle through the papers, searching for anything that looked useful. She found many letters to do with business of the university and its students and other things but nothing to do with Lavia or the plot. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she dropped to her knees and began to rummage through the desk drawers. They were immaculately tidy and it was there that Rose found something of interest.

She pulled out several small round gadgets that looked very similar to smooth stones except with a ridge on the underneath and a crack along the top and were very light.

"Jont!" she hissed, moving swiftly to the door, "Do you know what these are?"

He looked at her oddly. "They're hologram messages. Surely you've seen them before?"

Rose shook her head. "Can we operate them?"

"Sure," Jont nodded, "Just press the ridge on the bottom and they start up." Suddenly he froze. "Someone's coming! C'mon, we need to get outta here!"

"OK," Rose said, "I'll just get the rest of them…" She dashed back into the room and pulled all the messages out. She counted at least seven of them before shoving them in her jeans pockets and closing the desk drawers. Then, she rejoined Jont and they sprinted the opposite way down the corridor to which the footsteps were coming from.

"Don't… don't think they saw us," Jont panted, when they eventually stopped several corridors away,

"Yeah," replied Rose, fiddling with one of the messages, "Hey, we're near my room. Let's go there and watch these and work out the next stage of our plan,"

"Good idea," nodded Jont, before following her down the corridor on their way to her room, where they were to discover some very nasty surprises.

* * *

"I think it's safe to say that we can't get out," said the Doctor, glaring at the door, "No sonic screwdriver, no sonic blaster, you've lost your key…"

"Had it nicked thanks!" snapped Jack,

"Alright!" the Doctor snapped back before rubbing his face with his hands in agitation. The situation was getting to both of them and he was desperately worried about Rose. "Sorry," he muttered,

"Me too," replied Jack, "Do you wanna give it one last try?"

"Yeah," he said, standing up.

The two men stood in front of the door, their shoulders angled towards it.

"On the count of three," the Doctor said, "One… two…"

"Wait!" Jack called out, "Listen."

They fell silent and listened as someone outside the door fiddled around with the lock. It audibly clicked open and the door slowly opened. The two men tensed before…

"Rose!" cried out the Doctor, thankfully.

His angel ran straight into his arms while Jont followed her in, grinning at Jack and slapping him on the back.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, checking Rose over, "You're really pale,"

"We've found out something bad," she croaked, increasing her grip on him, "Me and Jont went to search Philip's office- oh, Jont is on our side. He's an agent from Piripi and he's been ordered by Lord Labeaut to keep an eye on Lavia,"

"She's well protected then," the Doctor grinned, "Me, you and Jack, Jont, Kall…"

"Not Kall," Rose interrupted, sadly,

"What do you mean?" asked Jack, who was listening in,

"Kall's involved in the plot to abduct her," Rose said, "And so is…" She sighed. "And so is Jen."

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	13. Part thirteen

**Degrees and the Doctor**

_**Thanks for the reviews as always. You guys rock; most of them are really sweet and make me feel good. Here's the next part. The next one will be up sometime tomorrow- it might be later rather than earlier. Hope you enjoy.**_

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

There was silence in the room for a moment as the Doctor and Jack took the news in. Jont and Rose watched them patiently.

"Kall and… Jen?" asked the Doctor, slowly, "They're our culprits?"

Rose nodded.

"You're lying!" Jack burst out, "Jen isn't part of it. Stop it, Rose!"

"I'm not lying!" she said, "I'm sorry, Jack,"

"Jen wouldn't do that," he cried, his voice cracking slightly, "I refuse to believe it until I see some proof,"

"Rose is telling the truth, bud," said Jont, "We went and searched Philip's office and we found some hologram messages in his desk drawer and they told us everything we needed to know,"

"Do you still have them?" the Doctor asked Rose,

"Yeah," she confirmed, pulling three out of her pocket, "I'm really sorry, Jack. I'm just as hurt by it as you are. I thought they were my friends..." She handed them over to the Doctor who activated one.

The four occupants watched as a flickering image of a Piripian alien appeared out of the top of the message. It spoke in a disjointed voice:

"Mr. Hilton, I'm so glad you've finally agreed to our little arrangement. Kall and Jenico will be arriving at the same time as Lavia and I expect them to be living in the same area or else there will be consequences to pay. You know what that means, Hilton. Do _not_ interfere with our plans and do exactly as we say at all times or you'll wish you'd never been born."

The recording cut off suddenly, leaving a stunned group.

"I don't believe it," said the Doctor, "I'd never have guessed that it was _Jen_!"

"Me neither," replied Rose, quietly, "What's her motive for it?"

The Doctor held her tighter in order to reassure her. "I don't know, angel. She's not even of the same species as Kall or Lavia,"

"Neither is Philip," put in Jont. He frowned. "Was it just me or did that message sound _threatening_ to Philip? D'ya reckon he's being forced to be part of it?"

"Maybe," said the Doctor, thoughtfully, "What I don't get is why _Kall_ is part of it. He told us himself that he was betrothed to Lavia from birth. Why scheme against his future wife?"

"Oh, come _on_!" sneered a voice, "I told you right at the start that I didn't like Lavia. Do you really think I was going to go through with the marriage? She's a stuck up cow!"

The TARDIS trio and Jont spun round to stare at the doorway where Kall, Jen and Philip were congregated with a bound Lavia in their midst. She looked terrified.

"Let her go," said Jont, firmly, "I'm ordering you to hand Lavia over to us right now,"

"I don't think so," said Jen, "I'm sorry but we have to take her away to headquarters,"

"Which is where?" asked the Doctor, calmly.

"Somewhere far away where you'll never find her," said Kall, "Now, if you'll excuse us?"

The group turned to leave but stopped when Jack's voice rang out.

"Jen, why?"

The alien from Crespallion turned to her boyfriend. "I'm sorry, Jack," she said, "I have to do this for the sake of my home world,"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Jen sighed. "Back on Crespallion I'm part of a radical group who's trying to stop this possible war in our future…"

Rose glanced up at the Doctor and he shrugged.

"…We were offered a deal with a faction on Piripi. If we help them with their plot to overthrow the current government using some of our unique weapons, they'll help us to stop the war. The offer was too good to refuse so here I am," Jen continued, "I am sorry…"

"Jen, shut up," Kall snapped, "We're wasting time and the shuttle's all ready to go." He smirked at the Doctor, Rose, Jack and Jont. "We're gonna leave you here all nicely locked up and go on our way and you won't be able to stop us. So, bye, bye, nice knowing you." He grasped Lavia's shoulders, who gave a frightened whimper, before turning them around and striding out of the room, followed by Philip and Jen.

Jen stopped to lock the door. "Jack," she sighed, "I did fancy you; don't think I didn't, OK?" With that, she slammed the door shut and locked it.

Rose immediately wriggled out of the Doctor's embrace and went and hugged her brother.

"You alright?" she asked, softly,

"Yeah, I just feel… betrayed," he muttered, closing his arms around her shoulders, "Ah, well. I've had it happen before. You've just got to get on with life." He gave a cheery smile, which Rose suspected was almost entirely fake.

"Right, we need to get this door open," the Doctor announced, "Any ideas other than smashing it down with our shoulders? It hurt the first time… and the second,"

"We could just use my key card," Jont offered, brandishing it, "Silly buggers didn't realise I had it on me!"

The Doctor and Rose laughed and grabbing each other's hand, they led the way out of the room. They had a shuttle to halt and a plot to stop.

* * *

"Where are we going, Doctor?" asked Rose, as she was pulled down numerous corridors,

"The university's launch pad," called the Doctor, "I'm assuming that if they want to leave the planet, that's where they'll go. We're nearly there, come on!"

They swung around a corner and through some enormous double doors that automatically swished open for them and then they stopped suddenly. They were back inside the huge room where the TARDIS trio had first arrived a few weeks earlier.

"This is the visitor's entrance," whispered Rose. She took another look around. "They're not here. Are we too late?"

The Doctor was scanning the ceiling, which was made of a transparent material. Through that, they could see another sort of roof several hundred metres above that and then there was space. It was a clever device that he hadn't had time to examine on his way in whereby the spaceship would launch from where they were standing and the roof above them would slide open. Once the ship was fully inside that one, the first doors closed and the top ones opened, allowing the rocket to soar off into space. It stopped the oxygen from leaving the planet.

"I suspect we've got here first," murmured the Doctor, "They'll have had to get their shuttle moved here." He looked behind him and then around him. "C'mon, Jack, Jont, go over there; Rose, with me."

The group split in half, with the janitors going to the left and Rose and the Doctor standing to the right of the automatic doors into the room. They waited in silence for a few minutes, their collective five hearts poundings and the adrenaline running through them.

Suddenly, the doors swished open and the abductors, complete with Lavia walked in, with a reasonable sized shuttle trailing behind them. They didn't see the hidden four and spread out, placing the shuttle into a contraption, which, with a high pitched whine, pulled it vertical so its nose was pointing up to space. Jen was standing aside with Lavia held firmly in her arms.

The Doctor gestured over to Jack and Jont, who nodded and started to creep up behind her. In the meantime, Rose and the Doctor stayed hidden and observed Kall and Philip, who were working on the shuttle.

"I sent a message to the boss," said Kall, "Told him what a good boy, you'd been. Guess we won't be revealing your _terrible _secret after all."

Philip swallowed; the sweat beading on his forehead. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Leave that up to the boss to decide," Kall replied, "Depends how well he thinks you've worked for us. But don't hold your breath; I made sure to tell him that you brought the Doctor and his followers in to stop the plot." He tutted. "He's not too happy with you, Hilton."

Philip paled. "But I did everything else you told me to! I let you and Jenico in, even though you wouldn't have got in normally and I gave you all rooms together and I lied to the Doctor!"

"Not good enough," said Kall, softly.

Suddenly, they were cut off by Jen's scream. They stared around and saw Jack holding Jen's arms behind her back and Jont embracing Lavia, who was crying in fear and relief.

"How did you get out?" yelled Kall, running over to them,

"You forgot I still had my key card on me, sonny boy," drawled Jont, "Bit stupid really."

Kall scowled and ran at him, only to be stopped by a pair of hands on his shoulders.

"I don't think so, Kall," said the Doctor, quietly, "Jont, get Lavia away from here to a safe place. We'll handle this and find you later. You might want to get a message to her father."

The agent nodded. "C'mon, Lavia. You're safe now…" He led her away, murmuring soothing words to his future leader, as well as explaining who he was.

"Hilton!" shouted Kall, struggling in the Doctor's arms, "Stop him!"

Philip glanced over to Jont, who was almost at the doors, and shook his head.

"No," he said, "I quit. I'm not doing this anymore,"

"We'll reveal your secret and you'll get sacked and probably imprisoned!" threatened Kall,

"I don't care," said Philip, sadly, "It's not worth kidnapping a girl for. Tell the entire universe that I embezzled university funds if you want. I don't care anymore." He closed his eyes for a second and when he reopened them, he was looking at the Doctor.

"I apologise," he said, sincerely, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just…ooof!" cried out the Doctor, winded, as Kall bought his elbows back into his stomach sharply.

"_Doctor!_" Rose yelled, as Kall escaped and sprinted over to her. He grabbed her, forcing her arms behind her and suddenly there was a sharp dagger in his hand, pointing directly at Rose's throat.

The Doctor stared at him, as did Jack.

"Now," said Kall, with a sickly sweet smile, "This is what we're going to do. You, Jack, are going to let Jen go and then both you and the Doctor will back away and let us get into the shuttle and fly off. We may have lost the goods but we're _not_ staying to be imprisoned. We've worked too long and hard for that."

"And what if we don't?" asked Jack, holding on to the struggling Jen,

"Then the Doctor will no longer have a girlfriend," answered Kall, with a dangerous glint in his eye, "Could you really live with that?"

Rose's eyes connected with the Doctor's and for a moment, they were both lost inside each other's gaze; the rest of the world ceased to exist. Then suddenly, the Doctor broke contact and gestured for Jack to let Jen go and step back.

"Thank you!" said Kall, sarcastically, walking backwards towards the shuttle and signalling to Jen to do the same.

"Let her go, Kall," said the Doctor, in a cold voice. Rose shivered at its intensity.

The Piripian appeared to ignore him, continuing to move backwards until he was on the ledge with Jen, which rose up to let them into the shuttle. Jen pressed a button and it began to ascend.

"I said, _let her go_!" roared the Time Lord, striding towards them, "I've kept my end of the deal, now you keep yours!"

"As you wish," snarled Kall, suddenly releasing Rose and pushing her forward.

She shrieked as she fell forward into mid air, the hard, cold floor rushing towards her until she was abruptly caught by a pair of strong, brown pinstriped arms. She clung to the Doctor as if her life depended on it.

"Rose, are you alright?" he asked, checking her neck where the dagger had lain for any damage. There was a tiny red mark but no blood spillage,

"Yeah," she said, "Thanks,"

"It's OK," he said, putting her down and looking intently at the still rising platform. "Only a coward uses a hostage situation to get away, Kall," he shouted,

"I don't care," he yelled back, "I've got away haven't I?"

Those on the ground watched as the lift came to an abrupt halt and Jen and Kall pulled open a concealed door and disappeared inside. Ten seconds later, a loud noise began to fill the air as the engines began to power.

"To the TARDIS?" asked a voice. Jack had joined them.

"Yup," the Doctor said, shortly. He grabbed Rose's hand and turned them around, suddenly spotting Philip.

"Can I help?" he asked,

"Come with us," the Doctor said, "Come on!"

The four of them ran out of the door, heading directly towards the storage area where the TARDIS was. Rose desperately hoped that Kall and Jen hadn't done anything to their lovely ship and voiced her fears aloud to her lover.

"She won't let anyone do anything to her controls unless it's me or one of my companions," he reassured her.

Rose was relieved to see that he was correct and the TARDIS was largely unharmed. As the Doctor and Jack powered her up, Rose went to check out the room that she had originally left those who she believed to be her friends, in. Upon pushing open the door, however, she cringed. It was a complete mess. Everything that could be upturned was overturned and there were long trails of toilet paper scattered around. Worst of all, written on one of the walls in something that Rose didn't want to know, were the words,

_Thanks Rose!_

"Rose, come on!" shouted the Doctor's voice.

She took a last disgusted look at the room and ran to join her friends in the control room.

"Hold on," the Doctor warned, as the TARDIS began shaking as it dematerialised,

"Where are we going?" Philip questioned,

"We are going to shock Jen and Kall by appearing inside their shuttle," the Doctor beamed, "And here we go."

The four cabin members held tightly onto stable structures as the shuddering increased and then suddenly stopped.

"Philip, it'll probably be best for you to stay in here. Don't wander off, you'll get lost," the Doctor said, as he, Jack and Rose moved towards the door, "And maybe he'll actually obey me, unlike _some_ people," he muttered, under his breath.

Beside him, Rose giggled and Jack grinned before they pushed open the door.

They had landed in what looked like the storage area of the shuttle. There were plain white walls and a ladder going up one of them.

"Looks like we've got to go up," offered Jack,

"Talk about stating the obvious," Rose snorted, elbowing him playfully as she waited for the Doctor to begin climbing the ladder. She followed, soon after, admiring the view in front of her and trying to avoid being hit by the ends of his long trench coat. She felt Jack begin to climb up behind her.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before they reached the top. The Doctor took her hand and they crept down a short corridor and stood at the doorway of the main control room, where they had heard voices coming from.

"Hello," the Doctor said.

Kall and Jen jumped and spun around.

"What? How did you get in here?" Kall gasped, completely shocked,

"Magic of the TARDIS," the Doctor grinned, striding in, "Now, I believe you have something of mine?"

The shocked look on Kall's face was replaced by a confused look and then he began laughing. "You came after us just to get your screwdriver thing back?"

"That's _sonic _screwdriver," put in Rose, earning a grin from the Doctor,

"Nah," he said, "I also want you to turn this shuttle around, go back to Mars and hand yourselves in to the Piripian guards which shall be arriving shortly,"

"For a genius, you're not very bright," Kall snorted, "Do you really think we're gonna do that?"

"Nope," replied the Doctor, cheerfully, "That's why I have my back up plan."

He suddenly grasped Kall's arms and pulled them sharply behind his back, causing the student to wince.

"Jack, take control and turn this shuttle around," he commanded,

"Sure," he replied, taking the seat that Kall had vacated and fiddling with the controls,

"Stop it!" Kall shouted, struggling violently in the Doctor's grip and kicking out his legs, "_Jen_! Stop them!"

Jen immediately stood up and began to pull at Jack.

"Oh no you don't!" Rose yelled, "You've hurt him enough already!" She grabbed Jen's arm and yanked her away from Jack and pushing her against the door.

Jen immediately began to fight back, scratching and clawing at Rose, her eyes gleaming with rage. Rose slapped her hands away, trying to contain her as the Doctor had taught her after the second Ziola incident. Suddenly, Jen slipped to the left suddenly where there wasn't any wall and both girls fell to the floor, rolling around like a pair of wild cats. They ignored Jack and the Doctor's frantic calls of them to stop and Kall's wolf whistling as he continued to struggle, instead intent on causing damage to the other. Rose was furious that Jen had messed with her brother and Jen was annoyed at having the plan thwarted by Rose, the Doctor and Jack.

Suddenly, a pair of hands yanked Rose off Jen. She turned around, further enraged by Kall's smirking face. She slapped him across the cheek without warning and his hand flew up to cradle it.

"I trusted you!" she yelled, "Lavia trusted you! How could you do that to a girl that had been entrusted to you to look after; a girl that would be your wife in the future? Well?"

"Money," Kall snarled, "It was all down to money as well as disliking the bitch!"

"Money?" Rose gasped, "You did all this for _money_? God, you are pathetic,"

"I didn't do it for money," Jen reminded her, making her whirl around, "I did it to protect my home." She backed away, not wanting to get into another fight with the angry human.

"Jen, look out!" Rose screamed, echoed by everyone else in the enclosed area.

However, they were too late as the alien from Crespallion screamed as she slipped down the hole, leading to the storage area.

There was complete silence for a moment before Jack ran forward and slid down the ladder. Rose, the Doctor and Kall peered down the hole to see him bending over Jen's motionless body. He looked up again after a moment, his normally cheerful face full of anguish.

"She's dead, oh God, she's dead!"

* * *

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


	14. Part fourteen

**Degrees and the Doctor**

**_Thanks for the reviews. I said it would be up on Christmas Eve and it is (and yes I am aware there's only 10 minutes of today remaining!). I really hope you've enjoyed reading this story- I've loved writing it! I will be writing more stories in February as I have exams next month, so look out for me then! All that's left to say is I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and an amazing new year and if you're in the UK, enjoy 'The Runaway Bride!' I can't wait!_**

_**Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me**_

* * *

The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS console, staring unblinkingly as the light moved up and down in a slow, rhythmic pattern. Both of his companions were asleep, both in the large double bed in the room that the Doctor and Rose normally shared. Rose had managed to persuade him to let Jack stay near her over night as an added source of comfort to both of them. The Doctor sighed. The whole business hadn't ended as well as he'd hoped; what with Jen's death, which had cut up both his best friends, Jack in particular. He thought back to that fateful moment when they'd all realised the news back on the shuttle. After a shock filled five minutes, they'd carried Jen's body on board the TARDIS and, complete with Kall who'd followed them quite willingly, they'd flown back to the university in the TARDIS, towing the shuttle behind them.

After that once they'd arrived, Philip and Kall were ordered to tidy up the room that had been vandalised while the Doctor went out to search for Jont and Lavia, and Jack and Rose had sat silently in the control room, holding tightly onto one another as they tried to absorb the shock.

Once the Doctor had found Jont, told him the news and come back to the TARDIS, he'd sat with them, doing his best to comfort them, until a knock at the door aroused his attention. It had been Jont, along with a number of armed Piripians, who had come to take Kall and Philip away for questioning. Jont explained that Lavia was in her room with her parents, who had flown quickly in a shuttle to get there and he then thanked them for all their help in foiling the plot. And then, four of the guards had rounded up Kall and Philip, who had both gone quietly, and the remaining three had carefully taken Jen's body from the infirmary and then left.

The TARDIS was then once more empty, other than her three regular occupants, and very quiet. The Doctor had forced his friends to eat some dinner and made small talk with them before packing them off to bed to get some much needed sleep. And that was where they were now, leaving him alone in the control room. He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair, before pulling out his sonic screwdriver, retrieved from where Kall had left it. He pulled up the grate and dropped silently down underneath the control panel. He wasn't going to sleep tonight. He'd do some invisible repair work instead,

* * *

The lecture theatre looked empty although it wasn't really. All the students were present except for the four he knew the best. He tried to avoid looking at the obviously empty row half way up the right hand side column where Rose, Jen, Lavia and Kall usually sat.

The remaining students seemed to have sensed his mood as they were quiet and not their normal chatty selves, only really talking if he asked them a question or if they wanted to raise a point. As a result, it was almost a relief when the door crashed open and Rose rushed in straight towards him. He had left her lying in bed, along with Jack, both of them still asleep. The Doctor had got the impression that neither of them had slept very well if at all and had instead spent the night talking and crying with one another. It was the best way for them to get over it and as much as he wanted to be, he wasn't much help. They needed each other to help themselves through it, as they'd both known Jen a lot better than he had. That didn't mean he wasn't willing to lend an ear, or any other body part, if they wanted him to.

Rose threw herself into his arms, her face automatically hiding itself in his neck. He put his arms around her, holding her tightly as she shook, and murmured comforting words into her ear.

"Missed you when I woke up," she whispered, after a few moments,

"Sorry, I had to come and take this lecture," he said, softly, rubbing her back.

She raised her pale face to meet his eyes. "Doctor, when can we leave?"

"As soon as I'm finished here," he replied, "I said I'll just take this last one while the new lecturer is getting here and then we can go, I promise,"

"OK," she snuffled,

"Are you feeling any better?" he wanted to know.

She smiled weakly- her first smile since the incident. "I'm in your arms, aren't I?" she whispered, before laying her head on his chest, listening to his hearts beat.

He chuckled slightly and kissed the top of her head before raising his eyes to look at the mass of staring students in front of them.

"Doctor?" one of them asked, slowly.

He sighed. "Your new and permanent Physics lecturer is on their way and will be teaching you from now on," he stated, "As I will be leaving today, along with Rose."

Several gasps rang out from the students.

"Rose is… she's the love of my life," the Doctor admitted, "It's not a new thing nor is she sleeping with me to get good marks so you can get that stupid rumour out of your heads right now."

He glanced around and was pleased to see several of the aliens blush.

"By the way, who started that rumour?"

There was complete silence until:

"It was Kall," one of the female aliens who had sat behind Rose and whispered about her announced, "He started it. Where is he anyway and those other two?"

"They won't be back," replied the Doctor, heavily, his opinion of Kall lowering even further, "I can't tell you why as its confidential," he continued, seeing various intrigued and confused looks, "But rest assured, you probably won't be seeing any of them again."

He heard Rose give a little sob and he stroked her hair reassuringly. "Now, we've got to go. Thanks for being a good group of students and sorry for the disruption of having a new lecturer. You're all very bright and I'm sure you'll go far." He gently began to guide Rose out of the theatre before stopping again at the door and facing the students, a small smile playing at his lips, "Oh and by the way, I really am a Time Lord."

* * *

After a brief chat with Lavia's father, Jont and the vice principal of the university and some extremely quick packing up of three rooms, the Doctor pressed the final button on the console and the TARDIS began to dematerialise into the vortex, leaving the University of Mars in the year 4085 behind. His two best friends stood either side of him as they watched Jont, Lavia and her parents waving at them on the screen before they disappeared.

"I'll miss Jont," Jack said, "He was a really good mate,"

"We can go back and visit if you like," the Doctor offered.

Jack shook his head. "Too many memories," he decided, sadly.

Rose reached across the Doctor and took Jack's hand, squeezing it. "Where are we going now?" she asked.

The Doctor grinned and pushed a lever. "London, England, Christmas Eve 2009. Specifically a place called Powell Estate."

Rose shrieked and grabbed him in a hug. "Thank you!" she cried, happily,

"I did promise you," he replied, "C'mon you two; go get ready. It's time for turkey and presents and mince pies and mistletoe!"

Jack and Rose grinned at him before running off out of the control room. The Doctor sighed in satisfaction. Christmas would be just the thing to cheer them all up completely.

* * *

"Did you love her?"

Rose's question stopped Jack in his tracks and he swung round to face her, immediately knowing which 'her' she was referring to.

"No," he said, "I might have done if we'd been in a longer relationship but… I dunno. I'll never know either," he added bitterly.

Rose bit her lip and grabbed him around the waist in a hug. She'd never seen Jack so down in all their travels together.

"Why'd _Jen_ have to die? Why couldn't Kall have been the one? He was truly evil; Jen was only there to help her planet!" he complained,

"Death would have been too good for Kall," Rose said, wisely, "He deserves what he gets." She stopped and took his hand and then leant up to kiss him on the cheek. "Now, c'mon, we've got Christmas to celebrate along with my Mum and hopefully my friends… including Matt…"

Jack grinned, his mood changing instantly. "I'll go find the mistletoe then…"

* * *

The TARDIS trio quietly stopped in front of Jackie's flat, grinned at each other and with a signal from the Doctor, they began to sing together:

"We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…"

The door opened.

"Here, none of that!" Jackie scolded, "I don't do…" Her eyes widened as she saw who it was. "_Rose! _she gasped, drawing her daughter into a hug,

"Hi Mum!" Rose laughed, hugging her mother back equally as tightly, "You alright?"

"I'm fine now!" Jackie beamed, letting go of Rose and then hugging the Doctor and Jack. Both looked rather dishevelled and scared when she let go, "I was hoping you'd be back for Christmas!"

She led the way in and the guys collapsed in the living room which Rose watched in amusement.

"Hey, we should have a party!" Jackie said, her eyes lighting up, "All your friends have been round to see if you're back yet and it would be nice for you to catch up with them,"

"Sounds great," enthused Rose, "Let's have it tonight. I'll give them a ring!"

"Alright, I'll need someone to come along to the shops with me to help carry the shopping. Jack, will you come?" asked Jackie,

"Sure," he replied, "See you two lovebirds later."

They disappeared out of the door after collecting what they needed. The Doctor turned to Rose.

"Come here, you," he smiled.

She ran over to him and he swept her up in his arms, pulling her head towards his and then kissing her passionately.

"I love you so much," he murmured, when they finally drew apart, "And I'm so sorry for what you've been through this past few weeks,"

"It wasn't all bad," Rose grinned, "It was fun at some times, especially in that tutorial last Wednesday even though it did cause trouble afterwards,"

"I can't believe you did that to me," the Doctor chuckled, before capturing her lips once more.

Rose smiled cheekily and nuzzled his nose with hers. "I suppose I better go and call my friends. Get ready for lots of squealing, chatting and fun; this is gonna be great!"

* * *

The next few hours flew by. Rose contacted her three best friends and chatted with them, along with inviting them to the party. After she'd been on the phone for half an hour, the Doctor decided that it had been long enough and crept up behind her and began kissing her neck. Rose squeaked.

"No sorry, I just hurt myself…" she hastily said, leaning back against the Doctor, "I better go anyway; I can hear Mum at the door… See you at eight!"

She hung up on Kirsty and grabbed the Doctor's hands from around her waist. "It's nice to be able to kiss in public again," she mused, tilting her neck so the Doctor could access more of it,

"Yeah," he agreed, in between kisses, "That's one of the things I missed the most. Means I have to kiss you more now to make up for it."

Rose grinned. "Suits me!"

* * *

Jack and Jackie interrupted their snog-a-thon a while later by arriving home, weighed down with tons of shopping. The Doctor and Rose instantly ran to help and spent the rest of the afternoon in the flat preparing for the party for making food and adding additional decorations to what had already been put up.

At last eight o'clock rolled by and the doorbell rang. Rose sprinted to the door and pulled it open.

"Hey guys!" she shrieked in excitement,

"Hi Rose," Lauren, Matt and Kirsty chorused, "Good to see you,"

"We missed you!" Lauren said, hugging her,

"I missed you too," Rose said, "C'mon in."

She pulled her friends into the living room where Jack, Jackie, the Doctor and some of Jackie's friends and family waited. They made the introductions quickly and then Jackie put a CD of Christmas songs on the stereo and the party started in earnest.

Rose had a fantastic time; catching up with her college friends, which took most of her time, in between dancing with everyone in the room and catching the Doctor numerous times under the mistletoe. She even caught Jack under it and they shared a friendly kiss. The Doctor didn't mind as he knew all their relationship would ever be was platonic. Rose's heart belonged to only the Doctor.

A few hours later, Rose glanced around the room. Her Mum was dancing with Lee from downstairs, her face slightly red from the alcohol she had consumed, Kirsty and Lauren were flirting with some young men who lived a couple of doors down (Rose didn't have the heart to tell them that the guys were gay) and Jack and Matt were getting on like a house on fire over in a corner of the room. She was pleased to see Jack joking and laughing and thoroughly enjoying himself again. The only person missing was the Doctor.

Rose slipped down the hallway and out of the front door where she discovered him on the balcony gazing up at the clear night sky. She silently went and stood next to him and his arm fell over her shoulders, drawing her closer to his side.

"Where are we going next?" she asked after a while, breaking the comfortable silence,

"We'll stay here a few more days and then see where the TARDIS takes us," the Doctor answered, "That sound alright?"

"Yep," she replied, breathing in the cold night air, "Sounds perfect."

Suddenly, the peaceful night was interrupted by the sound of bells ringing from the nearby church. Rose glanced at her watch and smiled. It had just gone midnight.

"It's Christmas Day," she announced, happily,

The Doctor smiled back at her, his brown eyes full of love, "Happy Christmas, my angel."

Rose leant up and kissed him sweetly.

"Merry Christmas, my Doctor."

* * *

_**And Merry Christmas from me too! **_

_**Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received**_


End file.
